Transactions. 63 



ber of stigmas, and even the beak of the perigynium and the seed. 

 For the proper examination of some of these parts the plant must 

 be got in flower ; but it must also be had in fruit, when the very 

 fonn of the matiired plant is a material aid to the identification. 

 There is often a considerable difiei-ence in appearance between a 

 Carex in flower and the same plant in fruit, as, for instance, Carex 

 Piilicaris. From the foregoing remai'ks you will see that it is not 

 surprising that different botanists have adopted different modes of 

 classification of the Carices. These can be seen in the various 

 manuals of British Botany. The baiTen and fertile flowers are, 

 with one exception, (-arex dioica. Monoecious — that is, on the 

 same plant — the spikelets either bearing all the flowers barren or 

 all fertile, or partly of both, with the barren spikelet the highest. 

 Oaiices, though possessing no gay or atti-active inflorescence, have 

 yet a wavy and graceful elegance of their own, not inferior to the 

 gracefulness of Graminese ; and when growing among the latter, 

 as they very often do, they afford a very pleasing mixture of both 

 form and colour. We find Carices in all sorts of waste ground, 

 especially where it is wet or marshy. They are found in wet or 

 dry situations — on rocks, on hills, on plains, by river sides, in 

 marshes, meadows, woods, lakes, and on the sandy sea-shore. 

 The Stewartry, from its diversified surface, contains good examples 

 of all these kinds of ground, and consequently the county contains 

 a very large proportion of the British Carices. Though my 

 gatheiings are confined to the Glenkens, the pai'ish of Colvend, 

 part of the parish of Rerrick, and along the shore from Creetown 

 to Ravenshall, yet these districts are sufficient to enable one to 

 know the Carices of the county, for they are excellent representa- 

 tives of the different characters of ground in which Carices are 

 found growing. In my botanical rambles in the places I have 

 mentioned I have gathered thirty-four species of the British 

 Carices ; but from the natui-e of the ground and the distribution of 

 the British Carices as regards latitude, the following eight species 

 should be found either in Dumfriesshire or in the Stewartry : — 

 C vulpina, BoRuninghauseniana,* Atrata, Eigida, Stricta, < apil- 

 laris, Paludosa, and Riparia. I shall esteem it a favour if any 

 Member of our Society will acquaint me with the finding of any 



* After this paper was read the Rev. Thomas Bell, Keig, Aberdeenshire, 

 and formerly of Tongland Parish School, wrote me saying that he had 

 gathered C. Bcennin'jhauseniana in the parish of Boi-giie, and also, he thinks, 

 in Twynholm. 



