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OCCURRENCE OF CAREX HELVOLA IN BRITAIN. 459 
and they brought me some very immature specimens collected 
at the end of June. Scanty though these were, I was at once 
enabled to say they were'not C. approximata, and I was at 
first inclined to refer them to montane C. canescens, but sub- 
sequent comparison with C. helvola led me to consider them 
to be inseparable from it. I therefore sent a specimen to 
Dr. Lange of Copenhagen, asking him whether he considered 
it to be that plant. He replied “that he thought the Carev 
must be C. macilenta, Fries, which he considered to be synony- 
mous with C. lapponica, O. F. Lang.” It is figured in the 
‘Flora Danica, Suppl. iii. t. 168. Not being satisfied with 
this determination, I subsequently sent him a somewhat better 
specimen, when he replied “the young of C. canescens is very 
difficult [to determine]. There is little difference between 
C. canescens, macilenta, and helvola. Your specimen from 
Ben Lawers is intermediate between the two latter, possibly 
sooner the C. helvola.” 
As there was still an element of doubt respecting the 
identification, I postponed my publication of the discovery till 
l had obtained further information. Accordingly I went to 
Ben Lawers in the first week of August 1897, and aided by the 
description of the locality given me by the Rev. W. O. Wait 
and Mr. Sidgwick, after a somewhat prolonged search I found 
the Sedge in some abundanee over a limited area, but the 
season being baekward the specimens were not mature and 
the two roots I sent home both failed to produce ripe fruits. 
Itook a type-specimen of C. helvola with me for comparison, 
and again I was unable to separate our plants from it, although 
our Sedge is much less luxuriant and the stems are more curved. 
That it was C. macilenta I could not myself believe. I for- 
warded fresh specimens to Mr. A. Bennett, who replied * that he 
thought I had got hold of the real thing." Subsequently I sent 
specimens to Dr. Christ of Basle, a well known authority on 
the Carices, and he replied that “ The Scotch specimen is, no 
doubt, the true C. Aelvola, identical with the plant of Finland, 
Norway, and Greenland.” Another specimen was sent to 
Professor Blytt of Christiania, who answered that “ I think y ou 
may name the specimens from Ben Lawers C. helvola. It is 
Lot quite like the most typical form, but it is very like specimens 
collected by me in 1867 and which I have determined as 
C. helvola.” 
