366 NOTES ON SOME HKRTrOUDSHrUE CAKICES. 



C. fuJra, Goodcnough. 



The history of this supposed species has been always attended with 

 many circumstances of obscurity, and the name has been used in widely 

 different significations. 



It was originally described by Goodenough in the second volume 

 of the " Linnean Transactions," where he characterises it in the fol- 

 lowing terms : — "C vagina infima subdimidiata, superioribus sub- 

 sequantibus, spicis fcemincis duabus oblongis acutis, capsulis rostrato- 

 acuminatis : Carex distans, Fl. Dan., t. 1049*, prope Eaton, juxta 

 Shrewsbury, in agro Salopiensi : R,ev. E. Williams." 



And after a detailed description, which it is not necessary to (juote, 

 he proceeds at some length to contrast his new species with that 

 immediately preceding it, as under — 



"This plant is scarcely removed from C. flava. However, it 

 differs from it in having the angles of the culm sharp and rough ; 

 the female spikes are remote, oblong, and acute, not round ; the 

 lowermost is supported by a long foot-stalk, half of which nearly 

 appears above the vagina. Besides, it has scarcely ever more than two 

 female spikes. The lowermost bractea is erect, and not divaricated. 

 The capsules are not divaricated, but patent, and are slightly divided 

 at the summit. I regret that I have had no opportunity of cultivating 

 it. I am indebted to the Kev. Mr. Williams, of Eaton, near Shrews- 

 bury, for my knowledge of this plant as a native of Britain. 1 have 

 received it from America and Newfoundland, but I never understood 

 till very lately that it was an inhabitant of our country." (Linn. 

 Trans, vol. ii., p. 177. Head April 3rd, 1792.) 



In this description the roughness of the culm is a character, at 

 least in a lesser degree, common to C. lepulocarpa, which also has not 

 un frequently but two, or occasionally even only one, female spikelet ; 

 and in the case, as perhaps usually happens, of a greater number the 

 lowest spikelet is often considerably removed from the rest. On the 

 other hand, both in the number of the spikelets, and in the length of 

 the lowest bract (" culmum plerumque ajquans," Good. I.e.), the 

 plant here described recedes clearly from C. Hornschuchiana, Hoppe, 

 with which Goodenough's species has been identified by some Conti- 

 nental botanists, and with which it has, as I believe, been generally 

 confused among ourselves. The figure (tab. 20, tig. 6),f as was usual 



♦ This figure has been very variously applied, and was considered by Smith 

 to represent his C. sjjcirosiachya, in spite of the "pointed scale accompanying 

 the fruit " (Eng. Flo., v. 4, p. 99) ; Hoppe, however, seems again to refer it to 

 his C. fulvn. 



t Goodenough's plate is copied by Schkuhr, " Riedgraser," tab. T , No. 67 ; 

 he has added, however, a figure of C. Iloy-ufchnchiaun, from which the details, 

 and especially the very characteristic female glume, arc taken. In the copy that 

 I have seen (the Linnean Society's, formerly in the possession of J. Woods) the 

 difference of colourinar in the two plants is well preserved. Schkuhr cjuotes 

 (J. tiiyoud of Allioni (Fl. Ped. , No. 2325) as a synonym, a name that if rightly 

 referred would take precedence (1785) of that of Goodenough. The female 

 spikelets are said to he " manifesto et perfecte trigona\ qua nota facillime a 

 proximis speciebus distinguitur," which does not apply to any British specimens 

 of the 80-Ccilled /■/(/(•« that I have seen. In the figure (tab. 89, f. 4) the upper 

 bracts are very short, while the lowest is disproporti>nally lan^-, aud greatly 

 exceeds the male spikelet, but this ])erhap8 is an accidental deformation ; in 

 other respects it is not unlike C. Uortischuchiuva. The same synonym has been 



