OCCURRENCE OF CAREX HELVOLA IN BRITAIN. 463 
positive evidence of the former, and in the case of the latter the 
probable absence of one of the assumed parents is a difficulty 
which appears almost insuperable. 
I shall content myself with remarking that I cannot separate 
the Ben Lawers plant from C. helvola, Blytt, and shall leave 
more experienced workers to decide upon its origin. 
C. helvola is kept as a distinct species in the ‘Index 
Kewensis, Richter’s ‘ Plante Europe,’ and Nyman’s ‘ Con- 
spectus Flore Europee.’ In the List of European Carices 
which appeared in the ‘ Comptes-rendus’ of the Société Royale 
de Botanique de Belgique, vol. xxiv. pt. 2, pp. 10-20, from the pen 
of Dr. H. Christ, it is also given specific rank, but a note is added 
“an C. microstachya-canescens ? Boeckeler, Linnea, 1875, p. 133.” 
Dr. Christ places it in the Section 31. Lagopine of Nyman, 
thus widely separating it from Section 28 which contains 
C. canescens. Under C. canescens he groups C. vitilis, C. Per- 
soonii, C. canescens var. subloliacea, Laestad., and C. macilenta. 
Nyman also separates the two plants widely— C. helvola being 
no. 108 in Section C. Heterostachye distigmatice mucronate, 
while C. canescens no. 125 is in Section E. Homostachye hypar- 
rhenæ canescentes. To me the grouping would appear more 
natural if the Lagopine followed the Canescentes. At any 
rate the separation of C. helvola from C. canescens appears to 
be untenable. The distribution of C. helvola as given in 
Nyman's Conspectus is “ Norv. Suee. bor., med. Fenn. mer. 
Siles. (r.). Tyrol. (r.)." 
It is possible that the Silesian and Tyrolean specimens might 
more correctly be referred to C. Zahnii. 
The station of C. helvola on Ben Lawers, where it is frequent 
over a limited area, is a micaceous bog made by a small moun- 
tain stream, which has broadened out one of the flatter terraces 
on the eastern side of the mountain, at an altitude of about 
3000 feet. O. echinata grows plentifully with it, and C. flava and 
C. saxatilis are in the same neighbourhood. In a similar bog 
about 200 feet below, montane C. canescens occurred (this has 
nearly the same habit as C. helvola), but I did not observe it 
growing with C. helvola, nor at higher positions on the eastern 
side. On the western side of Ben Lawers I found a few 
plants of C. helvola ata higher level, probably over 3400 feet. 
and on this side some quantity of a form of C. canescens (var. 
robusta, Blytt), which by some British botanists would be 
