i io ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



occurs in one. 1 Of the third there are specimens in herbaria 

 from six counties (!), and it still exists in three. Of the last, 

 specimens are extant for West Suffolk (!) East Suffolk, and 

 Norfolk (!) where it still occurs, though happily not to be 

 got at. 



With respect to varieties, no one is responsible for intro- 

 ducing more to the British Flora than Mr. Druce himself, 

 though no one has the opportunity of verifying them, and he 

 does not even give his brother botanists references. 



Under Car ex the three names canescens, leporina, and 

 saxatilis are again named as older. The reasons Mr. Druce 

 gives as to genera are obviously inapplicable to species, the 

 one made up of many units, the other of one or few, and so 

 far more plastic. 



He says : " Why a new name is coined for Carex stricta, 

 Sm., when there are others older available, I cannot under- 

 stand." Mr. Druce suggests C. elata, All. Has he seen a 

 specimen ? Because there is some reason to believe that 

 Allioni's plant was a form of acuta. I reject his name of 

 C. melanocJdoros, Thuillier. I have seen no specimen, and, if 

 one may judge by other local species of Thuillier, it is not 

 safe to accept it without a specimen. 



Professor Hackel's determination that Broinns racemosus 

 and B. commutatus are varieties of one species was long ago 

 anticipated in a paper by G. F. Schultz in " Flora Apl," 2 i , 

 1 849 (translated in the " Botanical Gazette " for January 

 1850), where he remarks that Gaudin in his " Flora Helvetica " 

 had described them as one species under the name of B. 

 simplex. This paper bears evidence of careful work, 



In saying " Carex diandra, Schrank, 1782, which is older 

 than C. teretiuscula, Good." (1794), Mr. Druce may be 

 correct, though I much doubt whether it is from any other 

 information than the synonymy given. If this were always 

 accepted, what a nice muddle it would lead us into. For 

 example, in the genus Potamogeton take only Smith's names. 

 Of these, I can vouch that three names, under three different 



1 It may save me trouble if I here record a note respecting a rare British 

 species. Some years ago I had the pleasure of seeing some 25 specimens of 

 Orchis Simia in full flower in Oxfordshire. I mentioned this in a natural 

 history journal, and within the next fortnight I received 45 letters asking for 

 the exact place where I saw them. I need hardly say none were answered. 



