130 The Scottish Naturalist. 



3039. H. Bquiseti Trail, Scot. Nat. 1885,^. 76. 



In dead stems of Equisetwn {? limosum). Feb. 

 East. — — — Dee — — — — 



West. — — — — — — 



Bank of River Don, near Aberdeen. J. W. H. Trail. 

 ( To be continued. ) 



SOHCENUS FERRUGINEUS L., A FLOWERING PLANT 



NEW TO BRITAIN. 



(By F. BUCHANAN WHITE, M.D., F.L.S.) 



HAVING recently begun to examine the Perthshire Cyper- 

 acese, I was much pleased to find among some plants 

 kindly collected for me by my friend, Mr. James Brebner, Rector 

 of the Harris Academy, Dundee, specimens of Schxnus ferruginetts 

 L., a species that has not hitherto been recorded as British. Air. 

 Brebner collected the specimens beside Loch Tummel, Perth- 

 shire, on July 15th, 1884. 



Schcenus Jemtgineus bears a little resemblance to depauperated 

 examples of 6". nigricans, but is quite a distinct species. The 

 spikelets are about two in number (sometimes only one) ; the lower 

 bract is about the same length, or a little shorter than the spike, 

 and is erect, and not somewhat oblique as in S. nigricans ; and 

 the glumes are quite (or almost quite) smooth on the dorsal keel. 

 The hypogynous bristles are said to be longer than the nut, but 

 my specimens are only in flower, and therefore not in a condition 

 to show this character. The whole plant is more slender than 

 S.'nigricans, and should be easily recognised by the characters I 

 have mentioned if found elsewhere, as is not improbable. 



The European distribution of S. ferrugineus is, according to 

 Nyman, from Sweden and south Norway to south-east France, 

 Thrace, and middle Russia. 



The Loch Tummel specimens vary from 7 to 11 inches in 

 length, and much resemble German and Swiss examples in my 

 herbarium. 



Sparganium neglectum Beeby as a Probable Scotch 



Plant.— In the Journal of Botany, January, 1885, p. 20, Mr. W. H. Beeby 

 describes as new, under the above name, a Sparganium which is extremely like 

 S. ramosnm Hucls., and had hitherto been overlooked as that species. The 

 distinctive mark is that in S. neglectum the ripe carpels are obovate-acuminate, 

 with a long beak, while in S. ramosum the carpels are obconical, with the 

 apex very truncate or rounded, and the beak short. 



.S". neglectitm is plenti'ul in Surrey, and is described (as S. ramosum) by 

 Leighton from Shropshire. It should be looked for in Scotch localities also. 

 I have a specimen from near Aberdeen in which the fruits, though immature, 

 agree vyith those of S. neglectum as described above. 



James W, H. Trail. 



