THE HIGH ALPINE FLORA OF BRITAIN 113 



88. Sagina stricfa, Fries, " Novit. Fl. Suecic." i. 74 (1814- 

 1823). This I believe to be the species to which should be referred 

 the plant mentioned in Mr. F. N. Garry's " Notes " in "Journ. Bot," 

 1903, suppl. p. 36, in regard to the specimen in herb. Sowerby, 

 probably used for the figure of Sagina maritima in " Engl. Botany," 

 t. 2195 (issued September i, 1810): wherein it is stated, "Mr. 

 G. Don sent the same from the summit of Ben Nevis in 1803." 

 This interesting specimen has Don's label attached, and is here 

 transcribed with the original spelling in the characteristic orthography 

 of this remarkable botanist: " S. alpina, this I believe to be a 

 new species. I found it upon ben Nivis in Lochaber, this answers 

 to the following description : foliis radicalibus linearibus, obtusis 

 nitidis flore apetalo ; this differs from the apetala in the radical 

 leaves being broader and obtuse and [?] opening, and it is a con- 

 siderable larger plant. I have cultivated this and apetala both for 

 2 years, and they remain permanently different. This is a 

 cultivated specimint, but it is in no way different from the wild spe. 

 in appairance ; found in 1794." In support of this identification, 

 Messrs. Groves (in Bab. "Man." ed. 9, p. 58) write that "Fries 

 states that his plant sometimes occurs upon mountains in Norway ; 

 and G. Don seems to have found it on Ben Nevis." The plant 

 from Cairn Gorm, referred to Sagina alpina by Mr. G. C. Druce 

 (in "Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist." 1892, p. 273), has a central rosette, 

 short peduncles, and sepals equalling the petals, and seems to me 

 to be much nearer the type of S. maritiina, G. Don, " Herb. Brit." 

 fasc. vii. n. 155 (1806), than to the same botanist's Sagina alpina, 

 found by him on Ben Nevis. Mr. G. C. Druce made an ascent of 

 Ben Nevis for the express purpose of finding Don's plant, but the 

 weather being unfavourable, with cold and driving rain, the search 

 unfortunately did not prove successful that is supposing it to be 

 still in existence there. We have then but David Don's statement 

 that his father found it still there in 1803, nine years after he first 

 discovered it on the mountain. In English floras S. stricta is 

 given as a synonym of Sagina maritima ; but the former, like Don's 

 plant from Ben Nevis, is distinguished by the following characters : 

 peduncles straight, not ascending, less shining, flowers apetalous 

 (Mr. Druce's Sagina alpina from Cairn Gorm has conspicuous 

 petals), sepals lanceolate subacute, not oval obtuse, leaves sub- 

 cylindrical (not lanceolate-linear) and quite obtuse, with shorter 

 internodes, stem usually solitary and without a central sterile 

 rosette, simple at the base and slightly dichotomously branched 

 above, always firm and strict from being more stoutish with closer 

 leaves. The specimen, dated 1803, is in herb. Smith, and 

 agrees exactly with that dated 1794 in Herb. Mus. Brit. 



Syn. S. maritima, var. alpina, Syme, "Engl. Botany," ii. 

 (1865); S. maritima, var. stricta, Clavaud, in "Act. Soc. Linn. 



70 E 



