289 



TWO NEW BRITISH PLANTS. 



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



(Plates 261, 262.) 



The persevering efforts of our British botanists in the North 

 have again been rewarded by the discovery of two S2)ecies of 

 Cyperacea not hitherto recognised as belonging to our flora. Tliese 

 are ScJuenus fernujineus L., obtained by Mr. James Brebner in 

 Perthshire, and Carex salina var. kattegatensis Fries, found by Mr. 

 J. Grant in Caithness. 



Of the genus ScJmnus only two species occur in the North 

 Temperate Zone, viz., S. nigricans L. and S. femtgineus L., the 

 bulk of the species, upwards of sixty in niimber, being natives 

 of Australia and New Zealand. The first-named species has 

 the widest range of any in the genus, extending from Sinai to 

 Western North America, and occurring also in the Cape of Good 

 Hope. Sclucnus ferrugineus is of a much more limited distribution, 

 being entirely confined to Europe, and by no means universally 

 distributed even there. It is found, however, sparingly over the 

 whole continent from Scandinavia to South Russia, excluding the 

 extreme north and south, being apparently absent from the Spanish 

 Peninsula, Italy, and France, with the exception of the Jura. Its 

 habitat, like that of the other species, seems to be open peaty 

 moors, often, especially in Southern Europe, at a considerable 

 altitude. 



ScH(ENUs FERRUGINEUS Linn. Sp. PI. ed. i. p. 43 ; Vahl. Enum. 

 ii. 207; Host, Gram. Austr. t. 71; Flora Danica, t. 1503; Anders, 

 tab. i. fig. 3 ; Lange, Danske Flor. p. 36 ; Sturm, Deutschl. Flor. 

 vol. X. ; Blytt. Norges Flor. p. 259. — Clmtospora ferruginea 

 Rchb. Flor. Germ. p. 74, fig. 676 ; Boeckeler, Cyperac. Berl. Herb. 

 876. 



Caespitose ; leaves sheathing the bases of the stems ; sheaths 

 ^1 in. long, dark brown at base, polished, deeply cleft ; lamina 

 short, subulate, acute ; stems numerous, strict, wiry, grooved, 

 \-l ft. high, glaucescent ; spikelets 2 or 3 in a head, subtended by 

 a bract about equal to them in length ; bract erect, oblong-mucro- 

 nate ; mucro long, terete, acute ; spikelets lanceolate-acute, flattened, 

 nearly ^ in. long, dark purple-brown, polished ; glumes 5-6, dark 

 blackish red, oblong-lanceolate, subacute; lower ones submucronate, 

 empty ; 3 upper ones containing flowers ; stamens 3 ; filaments 

 slender, persistent ; bristles short, scabrid, 3-6 ; style trifid ; 

 stigmas short; fruit very small, elliptical, triangular; angles blunt. 



Loc. — Scotland, Loch Tummel, Perth, Brebner ! Norway. 

 Sweden, Gotland, Ahlberg ! Nyman ! Benestad, liingius ! (Fries 

 Herb. Norm.). Oeland, and as far north as Vesterbotten. Den- 

 mark, " Bidstrupgaard Sielland, H. Bang. Moen. Bornsholm," 

 fide Lange in Dansk. Flor. Russia, Cardis ! Dorpat ! Baltic 

 Provinces, Gruner. Oi'ajnienha,iim,lngvia,, Meinetshausen I (Fl. lugr. 

 No. 478 b). " Livonia, Bunge, Curonia, Fleisch. & Lindem. Lithu- 



JouRNAL 01'' Botany. — Vol. 23. [Oct., 1885.] u 



