JUNCus TENUIS (avilld.). 23 



The history of the occurrence of this plant is peculiarly in- 

 teresting to us, as its first record for Britain was made by 

 George Don in 1795 or 1796. Its subsequent, rather erratic, 

 appearances have already been the subject of two papers in 

 this Society, but since the date of the last, by Mr. Alexander 

 Somerville, B.Sc, F.L.S., in 1895, additional information has 

 been gathered, and in view of this a brief recapitulation of its 

 occurrences may be permitted. 



It was discovered, as I have already said, by Don, whose 

 record has been treated with something very like contempt by 

 subsequent makers of Floras — who, however, as far as I can 

 gather, did not make any serious effort to clear up the matter 

 for themselves, but, because the plant was one not likely to be 

 found in such a station as Don described as its habitat in 

 Forfarshire, and possibly also because Don had foimd so many 

 things which other collectors were unable to trace, they simply 

 put it aside. 



It was not until 1883 — nearly ninety years afterwards — that 

 Mr. Touudrow found it in Herefordshire ; for, although Mr. John 

 Thomson, of Dennistoun, Renfrewshire, had gathered it in 

 1863, twenty years earlier, and sent a specimen to Greenock 

 Museum, it was included in the collection of that institution 

 under the name of Juncus acutiflorus. In 1886 Mr. James 

 M'Andrew, of New Galloway, sent a specimen from Kirkcud- 

 brightshire to Mr. Arthur Bennett. Then, in 1889, it was 

 found by Mr. Reginald W. Sully, F.L.S., in several places in 

 County Kerry, and in the same year it was picked up by the late 

 Professor King on the roadside between Kilmalcolm and Bridge 

 of Weir. It is a curious fact that Mr. Thomson who, with 

 Mr. William Stewart, of this Society, accompanied Professor 

 King at the time, did not recognise it as the same plant as 

 he had previously collected as /. acutiflorus. Shortly after- 

 wards Mr. Ewing visited the place in company with Professor 

 King, and collected specimens of the plant, which were sub- 

 mitted to Mr. Bennett, and certified by him as Juncus tenuis. 

 In 1889 Mr. M'Andrew again found it near Shiel. Since then 

 it has been recorded for Carnarvonshire by Mr. W. H. Painter 

 in 1891 ; by Mr. Laurence Watt for Dunbartonshire in the same 

 year; by Mr. E. J. M. Graham for Cornwall in 1894; by Mr. 



