on the Britifb Species of Carex. ~ 199 
fpecimen. However, the habit of the plant which he has figured, 
the fhortnefs of the leaves, and the apparent ftriétnefs of the culm, 
make me look upon it to be C. /riééa, Had it been drawn up- 
right, there would have been little or no doubt. 
I fhould fuppofe that Dr. Withering meant this plant for his «cf: 
pitoja: but in fome particulars the defcriptions do not accord; per- 
haps they are taken from cæ/pitofa and /fricíia promifcuoufly, on a 
fuppofition that they are the fame. 
The younger Linnæus once told me, that this was his father’s 
C. acuta, var. rufa. i. e. the var. à of the Flora Suecica, to which is. 
quoted Micbe//us's figure t. 32. f. 12. which is there faid to be exact. 
(We were examining a living plant in Kew-garden when this con- 
verfation paffed). Now that figure has the female fpikes with 
longifh peduncles, which I never have obferved the //riéfa to have. 
Had the {pikes been feflile, it would have been a very decent re- 
prefentation of it. It could not be the acuta var. & of Flora Suecica, 
for that is, as appears evidently in the Linnean herbarium, the C. 
gracilis of Mr. Curtis. Certainly the growth of this plant anfwers 
to the name of acuta better than any other, having all its parts 
erect and fharp pointed. I wifhed to have named it fo; but as the 
gracilis of Mr. Curtis is preferved in the Linnean berbarium under 
the name of acuta (by which means we are fure of one of the va- 
rieties), and as this has its title of acuta, var. rufa, only from a con- 
verfation held accidentally with the younger Linnæus, I do. not ven- 
ture to change the name upon this authority. There would, I 
own, be great propriety in calling this plant acuta, and fuffering 
Mr. Curtis's very apt appellation of gracilis to remain with the other. 
I muft confefs that I have but little doubt of this being the acuta 
var. rufa of Linnzus *.—It is the only” plant which accords with 
* Since the reading of this paper, the Baronefs d’Itzenplitz favoured me with a fight 
of fome Carices, fent her from Upfal, among which I obferved this plant named acuta. 
Mr. 
