Linnaan Society. 219 



December 19. — E. Forster, Esq., V.P., in the Chair. 



Read a paper " On Carex saxatilis, L., and an allied species." By 

 Francis Boott, M.D., F.L.S. &c. 



The alHed species referred to was found in 1832 in Glen Phee, 

 Clova, by the party accompanying Dr. Graham on his annual bota- 

 nical excursion to the Highlands, and was considered as a form of 

 C. saxatilis, L. ; but Dr. Boott, whose attention has lately been called 

 to the subject by a letter from Mr. W. Wilson of Warrington, point- 

 ing out certain differences between the two plants, is led to regard it 

 as a distinct species, which he names and characterizes as follows : — 



Carex Gra/iami, spiels 4 — 5 cyhndricis ferrugineis ; masculis 2 (rarius 1) 

 graciHbus acutis : foemineis 2 — 3 subremotis crassis obtusis inferioribus 

 pedunculatis evaginatis subnutantibus, stigmatibus 2, perigyniis ob- 

 longo-ovatis rostratis bifurcatis inflatis uervosis suberectis ferrugineis 

 (rarius stramineis) basi pallidis squama ovata acuta fusca apice albida 

 nervo paUido duplo longioribus. 



Of Carex saxatilis, L.,Dr. Boott gives the following character : — 

 C. saxatilis, spicis 2 — 3 atropurpureis ; mascula 1 (rarius 2) cylindricd 

 pedunculata: foemineis 1 — 2 rotundatis ovatisve infima plus minusve 

 pedunculata evaginata bracteata erecta, stigmatibus 2 — 3, perigyniis 

 subglobosis ovatisve rostratis emarginatis stipitatis patentibus enerviis 

 atropurpureis basi pallidis squama ovata obtusiuscula nigro-purpure^ 

 apice albida nervo concolovi longioribus. 



C. saxatilis, L. Fl. Lapp. 259 (1737). 

 C. pulla, Good, in Linn. IVans. iii. t. 14 (1795). 



Hah. in Alpibus Scotise, Norvegiae, Lapponiae, Sueciae, Islandiae, Insula- 

 rum Faeroeusium. 



The author enters at length into a critical examination of the ori- 

 ginal authorities which prove the Carex pulla of Goodenough to be 

 the same with Carex saxatilis, L. ; and points out the origin of the 

 confusion of the latter with C. rigida. Good. He then examines more 

 particularly the distinguishing characters of C Grahami and C. sax- 

 atilis ; and adds that he should have no doubt of the specific distinc- 

 tion between them but for the observations of Drejer, who in his 

 ' Revisio critica Caricum Borealium ' describes, under the name of 

 C. pulla (3 fusca, specimens from Iceland and Greenland closely 

 agreeing with C. Grahami, except that he makes no mention of the 

 nerves of the perigynium, and observes that the Greenland specimens 

 are so extremely variable that it could scarcely be believed that they 

 belong to the same species. In the absence of precise information 

 respecting the perigynium of the larger Greenland specimens. Dr. 

 Boott is inclined to refer them, together with the specimens from the 

 Rocky Mountains described by him in Sir W. J. Hooker's ' Flora 

 Boreali- Americana' under the name of C. saxatilis, to C. physocarpa, 

 Presl, a native of Nootka Sound. Of the latter his knowledge is 

 derived from M. Kunth's " Ct/perographia." 



In conclusion Dr. Boott leaves it to future observation to deter- 

 mine the value of the specific character which he has given of C. Gra- 

 hami ; whether it is to be considered as a distinct species, referred 

 back to C. saxatilis, L., or transferred to C. physocarpa, Presl, re- 



