CAREX MAGELLANICA IN THE OUTER HEBRIDES 189 



have thought me very neglectful not to have taken some 

 notice of it ere this ; but I was not satisfied with the name, 

 and asked Mr. Duncan to send me some specimens of C. 

 limosa from North Harris which he told me he had gathered 

 there. This he has lately done, and I was surprised at the 

 variability of the plant. When one gets specimens sent 

 from collections abroad, they naturally send what is sup- 

 posed to best represent the species asked for, and so one 

 gets good sets of typical species, but with no range of varia- 

 tion. Here is an evil not easily done away with, and which 

 Hooker and Thomson in the "Flora of India" remark 

 on as follows (I quote from memory) : " It is much to be 

 wished that botanists would collect the variations of species, 

 and so see if many are not really extreme forms of some 

 other species," etc. 



After seeing these North Harris specimens and others 

 from Arctic Europe, I have no hesitation in saying that Dr. 

 Shoolbred's specimen is simply a form of C. limosa. 



In looking over these North Harris examples I found that 

 some much resembled the figure of C. stygia, Fries, in Anders- 

 son's " Cyperaceae Scandinavian," t. 7, f. 71 (1849). Con- 

 trasting this with the figures of limosa (f. 73) and of rariflora 

 (t. 6, f. 70), to which Fries considered stygia most nearly 

 allied, it seemed that the Hebridean specimens much more 

 resembled that of stygia than that of limosa. Fries insists, 

 for one thing, on the " squamis . . . obtusis mucronatis 

 obvolutis." These Harris specimens varied from " obtusis " 

 and " lanceolatis " to " evidentius apiculatis " of Fries's 

 stygia. 



I have never been able to see an authentic specimen of 

 Fries's stygia ; but Hjelt in his " Consp. Fl. Fennicse," part iii. 

 p. 293 (1895) (a Flora of great interest from the evidence 

 of careful work that it contains), remarks : " An example in 

 Fischer's herbarium is only C. limosa" quoting as authority 

 "Treviranus in ' Moscow Bull.,' No. 2, 542 (1863)." Also 

 he says : " F. Nylander's example in Fries's herbarium from 

 Hibina belongs to C. pulla" quoting Th. Fries in " lakta- 

 gelser rosande Ostfinmarken' Starr- Arter, 1857." 



1 " Summa Veg. Scand.," p. 234 (1846). 

 - Anderson, I.e. p. 35. 



