1 84 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



somewhat different, having a very much broader and flatter appear- 

 ance ; more so than any of my Continental examples. But that is 

 apparently only an apparent difference, and may result from the way 

 in which it was preserved." On the 3rd June 1883 Dr. Boswell 

 wrote that he did " not believe the Gloster plant had anything to 

 do with L. complanatum. I have named it in " E. Bot.," plate iii., 

 L. alpinum, var. decipiens. The New Forest plant is more likely 

 to be complanatum var. Chamcecyparissus ; the Skye plant may 

 be complanatum, L. genuinum, but I must wait further evidence 

 before I admit complanatum as British." In the twelfth volume of 

 " E. Bot.," the plate 1834'% drawn from my Gloster specimen, is 

 labelled L. alpinum, L., var. decipiens, but it is a nomen solum, no 

 reference to description of it being given in the text ; but the plate is 

 not so characteristic of the plant as is the one which appears in the 

 "Journal of Botany," since the flattened character of the branches 

 is not well shown, nor are the parent bracts on the spikes properly 

 expressed. On the same " E. Bot." plate is a drawing of a barren 

 fragment labelled L. complanatum var. anceps, which appears 

 identical with Professor Lawson's Skye plant; but I have failed to obtain 

 any account of its history. Messrs. Grove consider the Skye plant only 

 larger alpinum. It has the branches much broader than any specimen 

 of pedunculate complanatum that I have seen, but in the leaf-character 

 it is more like that species than is even my barren Gloster plant ; this 

 itself having teeth much less saw-like than have the creeping, flattened 

 specimens of L. alpinum from Scotland and the Lake district ; 

 indeed leaf specimens alone would be very difficult to distinguish 

 from those of a specimen of pedunculate complanatum from North 

 America, which led me to think the two were not dissimilar. 

 Probably Sir Joseph Hooker is right in placing L. alpinum as a sub- 

 species of L. complanatum, that is, in a Benthamian sense ; this was 

 the view taken by such a high authority as Milde. Personally I 

 think they should be kept distinct, as under : — 



t Cones usually several, peduncled — 



L. complanatum, L. — " Sp. PI." Ed. 11 04, et Herb.! "Flora 

 Danica " 2671; branches prostrate, flabellate. Var. L. 

 Chamseeyparissus, A. Braun. — In Doll. " Rhein. Fl.," p. 36 ; 

 "Fl. Danica," pi. 2672; branches erect, fastigiate. 

 ft Cones usually solitary, sessile — 



L. alpinum, L. — "Sp. PI." 1104. Leaves nearly uniform, branches 

 not flattened. Scottish Lakes, Wales, Lincoln. Var. decipiens. 

 — " E. Bot.," pi. 1834''' (sine descriptione). Distinguished from 

 alpinum by its larger size, by its flattened spreading branches, 

 with the central leaves on the flattened stem more erect 

 than the lateral. Scotland, Westmoreland, Cumberland, 

 Gloster, Worcester. 



