110 THE JOUHNA.L OK BOTANY 



SHORT NOTES. 



Carex pulicakis forma Montana (see page L03). — On 

 June 5th, 1915, 1 was vet another field- botanist puzzled by a form 

 of G. pulicaris with erect fruits and short stems. It was growing 

 in great quantity on the rather damp N.E. shoulder of Crook Peak, 

 Somerset, at an elevation of about 509 feet. This is the limestone 

 spur of the Mendips nearest the sea, which, though only 628 It. 

 high, forms so conspicuous an object from the (J.W.ll. between 

 Yatton and Highbridge. 1 gathered numerous specimens, some of 

 which I distributed, but on mounting a good series I could haul 

 nothing but pulicaris in the sedge. After reading .Mr. Pugsley's 

 account of his forma nova, I referred to my specimens and find all 

 those from Crook Peak are of this dwarf, erect- fruited form. They 

 are 8-12 ems. high, with strong tufted roots. The same day I 

 collected typical pulicaris, with fruits already rellexed and most of 

 the lower bracts fallen, in Max meadows, Winscombe, immediately 

 below the aforesaid hill; they average 18 cms. in height. On 

 reference to my diary of 1915 1 rind June 5th followed a three weeks' 

 drought. But specimens with erect perigynia from a thicket on 

 limestone by Durdham Down, Clifton, Bristol, gathered 25 June, 

 1916, are 17-27 ems. high, though with the strongly-ribbed si 'ins 

 of the Mendip plant, which are rather thicker and less riliform than 

 those of the plains. The height of the Durdham Down specimens 

 may be accounted for by the fact that they grew at the southern 

 edge of a rather dense thicket. Both my M mi lip an 1 Durdham 

 D )wn specimens confirm the persistency of the bracts, described by 

 Mr. Pugsley. It is probable that several m >re of the upland 

 localities for pulicaris mentioned in White's Flora of Bristol will 

 prove to come under the montane form; at least we now know that 

 the form is not peculiar to the high mountains, and can substantiate 

 Mr. Pugsley's supposition in regard to some of the Clifton plants. 

 All the spikelets of the forma agree in being distinctly shorter than 

 those of the type collected on the same day, and both my Mendip 

 and Durdham Down specimens of montana exhibit the persistency of 

 the bracts. On the Continent I do not remember having seen 

 C. pulicaris at a greater elevation than 6d00 ft. or 1920 m. This 

 was in the swamp round the lake at Mont Cenis, where it is asso- 

 ciated with the closely allied C. microglochin, Wahlenb. and with 

 C. dioica and 0. Davalliana. Jaceard says (Cat. de la Flore 

 Valaisanne, 1895) of pulicaris in Canton Valais "tres rare ou peu 

 observe. 8S0-1S00 m." ; whereas the range of G. rupestris in thai 

 very mountainous area is given as 1009 o 100 metres. —II. Stuabt 

 Thompson. 



Epipactis LEPTOCHILA Oodf. The plant described as E. riri- 

 ilijiora Kchb. var. leptochila (Journ. Bot. 1919, p. 37) can no 

 longer be regarded as a variety of lieichenbach's species. The latter 

 is identical in the morphology and functions of the reproductive 

 organs with E. latifolia, of which it forms a subspecies, race, or 

 variety, according to the views of different authors; E. leptochila 

 differs from this in exactly the same way in which it differs from 



