THE 



JOURNAL OF BOTANY, 



BEITISH AND FOEEIGN. «^ai?y 



ON JUNCUS TENUIS AS A BEITISH PLANT. 

 By H. N. Eidley, M.A., F.L.S. 



(Tab. 253.) 



The first time that we hear of this plant as a native of the 

 British Isles is in ' English Botany,' t. 2174, published in 1816, 

 where it is described by Sir J. E. Smith as a new species under the 

 name of Juncus gracilis. Later, Smith (Engl. Flora, ii. 167) altered 

 the name to J. Gesneri, as the name J. ;/mcilis was previously in use. 

 The specimens from which it was described were stated to have 

 been collected by George Don in Forfar in 1795 or 1796, and in 

 the mountains of Scotland by Dickson. In Gardiner's ' Flora of 

 Forfar,' p. 183, it is recorded thus : — " By a rivulet in marshy 

 ground among the mountains of Clova, near their summits. Mr. 

 G. Don and Mr. D. Don." 



There are two specimens of the plant in flower in a collection of 

 Grasses, Cyperacece, and Juncacea made by George Don, preserved 

 in the Natural History Museum, and specimens are stated by Mr. 

 G. C. Druce (' Scottish Naturalist,' Oct., 1884, p. 264) to exist in 

 two other collections made by Don. The plant is not localised in 

 the British Museum collection, but in one of those seen by Mr. 

 Druce it is labelled Clova. From that time till 1883 the plant has 

 never been rediscovered in Britain, and has long dropped out of the 

 botanical books, it being supposed that Don distributed the plant 

 by mistake, having either cultivated it in his garden or obtained it 

 from abroad, as was confessedly the case in certain of his reputed 

 discoveries. The other plants, however, in his collection in the 

 British Museum are natives of Britain, although some were certainly 

 not obtained from Forfar. 



In this Journal for 1884, p. 91, is a note from Mr. E. F. 

 Towndrow announcing his discovery of the plant in a rough and 

 rushy pasture in the parish of Cradley, in Herefordshire. He found 

 there but a single tuft. The plant was verified by Mr. Baker, and 

 specimens were also sent to the Natural History Museum. These 

 specimens are in flower, and, it is interesting to note, bear a great 



Journal of Botany. — Vol. 23. [jANUAiiY, 1885.] u 



