CAREX HEL VOLA, BLYTT, ON BEN LAWERS 239 



fresh specimen was sent to Mr. Arth. Bennett, who replied 

 " he thought I had got hold of the real thing/' i.e. C. helvola. 

 Dr. Christ of Basle, a well-known authority on the Carices, 

 reported " the Scotch specimen [from Lawers] is, no doubt, 

 the true C. helvola^ identical with plants of Finland, 

 Norway, and Greenland." Prof Blytt of Christiania, son of 

 the discoverer and namer of C, helvola^ said : " I think you 

 may name it C. helvola ; it is not quite like the most typical 

 form, but it is very like specimens collected by me in 1867 

 which I had determined as C. helvola!' The Pfarrer 

 Kiikenthal, who has written the elaborate and scholarly 

 * Monograph of Carices ' for the " Pflanzenreich," named it 

 without any expression of doubt C. helvola, Blytt ; and 

 under that plant in his " Monograph " he gives my specimen 

 (Ref No. 22,966) gathered in 1889 from Ben Lawers, 

 marking it with (!) signifying he had seen the specimen, as is 

 the case with my Loch-na-gar plants. The above are my 

 authorities, and warrant me in recording C. helvola^ Blytt, 

 from Ben Lawers, and including it in my " British List " ; 

 and Kiikenthal also marks " Forfar ! " the three counties 

 cited for it in my " List." 



Now for my C. helvola, Blytt, var. I visited Ben Lawers 

 in 1898 and 1899, and collected more specimens, looking 

 out especially for variations. One gathering (Ref. No. 1237) 

 was distributed through the "Exchange Club" in 1898. 

 This differed somewhat from C, helvola, therefore I put 

 " var." In the specimens which I dissected I could see no 

 evidence of echhiata, which the Rev. E. F. Linton and Rev. 

 E. S. Marshall suggested ; but subsequently in going over 

 some duplicates I saw that in one or two cases the perigynia 

 had a longer beak. This was more evident in specimens 

 collected in 1899, which I also sent to Kiikenthal as 

 " ? canescens x echinata!' On these he remarked, " Nearer 

 canescens than the specimen sent last year. The spikelets 

 are more elliptic than oval, and somewhat longer beaked 

 than in canescens, otherwise the difference from canescens, var. 

 dubia, is very slight." On the faith of my specimens from 

 Lawers, Kiikenthal in his "Monograph," p. 250, cites under 

 cajiescens x stelhilata = C. biharica, Simonk, " Ben Lawers, G. 

 C. Druce ! ". Other specimens he names (Joe. cit. p. 251) 



