450 Trcoiaaclioits,. —Botuiti/. 



Recently I have received specimens collected in the PeloruiS 

 by Mr. Rutland. But, notwithstanding the fact of its wide, 

 general distribution in northern Europe, Siberia, western Asia, 

 Greenland, the Rocky Mountains, &c., and its occurrence on 

 both sides of Cook Strait, it must be coiisidered an introduced 

 species in New Zealand. It is believed to occur in the Falk- 

 land Islands. 



It is plentiful in the British Islands, and its fruits are very 

 likely to be introduced with badly-cleaned grass-seed. 



Carex chlorantha, R. Br., and C. divisa, Huds. 



As the first-named species w^as stated by the writer to occur 

 in New Zealand,* it seems desirable that the reasons for erasing 

 it from our lists should be fully stated, to prevent mistake re- 

 specting it in the future. 



In 1871 I collected a Carex on the shores of the Waitemata 

 which I was unable to refer to any species known to me. It 

 occurred on a small flat at the base of the cliff, and covered a 

 space of between thirty and forty square yards, forming a 

 sward so extremely dense that it was scarcely possible to ob- 

 tain rooted specimens with an ordmary pocket-knife. The 

 leaves were as dense as a piece of pasturage, and the culms, 

 from 4in. to 6in. high, but slightly overtopped the leaves, and 

 gave the plant the appearance of C. arenaria, L., to which it 

 is, indeed, closely related. During the next year specimens 

 were sent to Kew, and there identified as a variety of C. in- 

 versa, R. Br., an identification wdiich I was unable to accept. 

 I then forwarded specimens to my friend Baron von Mueller, 

 who identified it wuth C. chlorantha, R. Br., and recorded it 

 as a New Zealand species in his "Fragmenta." i At that time 

 w^orks on Australian botany w^ere not available for reference 

 in Auckland, and there w^as no reason to doubt the accuracy 

 of the identification ; specimens were therefore distributed 

 under that name, and some were deposited in the Museum of 

 the Auckland Institute, where they remained at the time of my 

 removal to Wellington in 187 1. A few years later I received 

 a note from Mr. N. E. Brown, of the Kew Herbarium, stating 

 that the plant " was not Carex inversa, and, if not a form of 

 C. colensoi, would prove to be a form of C. divisa." This, of 

 course, was interesting ; but on making a re-examination of 

 my specimens I was convinced that the plant could not be 

 referred to C. colensoi, and its general appearance differed so 

 widely from that of any form of C. divisa known to me that, 

 in the absence of authenticated specimens of C. chlorantha for 

 comparison, T still continued to refer it to that species. Mr. 



* Trans. N.Z. Inst. (1877), vol. x., p. 42, Appendix, 

 t Fragnionta Phyt. Aupb., viii., 256 (November, 1874). 



