2 ON .TUNCUS TENUIS AS A BRITISH PLANT. 



similarity to those of Don, being rather more weak and gracile than 

 most of the continental specimens. 



The distribution of the plant has several points of interest. It 

 is common in North America, extending across the whole continent 

 from Hudson's Bay to Mexico. In Europe it is much rarer, occur- 

 ring sporadically in Holland, between Auersfort and Nykerke 

 (Boidninl); in Belgium, at Aerschot {Van Heurckl); in Schleswig- 

 Holstein (Hansen !) ; in France, at Nantes {Billot !). In Germany 

 it seems more common, especially in Saxony : Gorlitz and Eoths- 

 stein, at 1400 ft. (Baenitz !) ; Herrnhut {Hans !) ; Tharand (Ueichen- 

 bachl); Eostan [Martens \) ; also in Swabian Bavaria, near Mem- 

 mingen {Koeherlin\) ; and in Bohemia. It is also found in Madeira 

 {Mandon\); in the Cape Verde Isles {R. T. Lowe\); and in the 

 Azores {Drouet !) ; and near Nelson, in the North Island of New 

 Zealand [Chcesemcm !). 



Thus it will be seen that as far as regards Europe it is strictly 

 Western, and may be considered as a Germanic type. It appears 

 to prefer roadsides, especially in sandy places, such as paths across 

 heaths or through pine-forests, and to avoid high ground and wet 

 localities, facts which seem to throw doubt upon Don's habitat, 

 which, if genuine, would be the most northern limit of the species 

 in Europe. It seems hardly necessary to state that there is no 

 evidence that it is a recent introduction from North America, but 

 possibly it may be a relic of the old land-connection with that con- 

 tinent, like Kriocaulon septanijulare. 



I subjoin a description of the plant, with its more important 

 synonyms : — 



JuNcus TENUIS Willdcnow, Spec. 2, 214 (1799) ; Keichenbach, 

 Ic. Flor. Germ., pi, cccxcviii., fig. 887; Sturm, ' Deutschlands 

 Flora,' vi., 1. 



J. pallidus "Willdenow Herbarium, fide Buchenau. 



J. bicornis Michaux, Flora bor. Am. 1, 191 (1803). 



J. gracilis Smith, Eug. Bot., No. 2176 (1816). Bicheno, Trans. 

 Linn. Soc. xii. 813. 



J. Gcsneri Smith, Engl. Flora, vol. ii., p. 167 (1828). 



J. secundus Beauvois, Encycl. Meth. Bot. Supplem. iii., p. 160 

 (1813). 



J. macer S. F. Gray, ' Natural Arrangement of British Plants,' 

 ii., p. 164 (1821). 



J. chlorvticuN Schultes, Eoem. & Schultes, Syst. Veg., vii. i. 

 p. 240 (1829). 



J. Smithii Kunth, Enumeratio PL, vol. iii., 349 (1841). 



,7. lucidiis Hochstetter in Seubert, ' Flora Azorica,' p. 24 (1848). 



J. Gcntianorum Steudel, Syn. PL Glum. ii. 305 (1855). 



J. vacillans Steud., I.e. 



J. compressus x e[fusHs 0. Kuntze, Taschen-flora von Leipzig, 

 p. 55, 1867. 



A perennial plant with very short rhizome and numerous wiry 

 roots. Stems slender, several together in a tuft, one foot to a 

 foot and a half in height, with narrow, flat, liiuar leaves, usually 



