Proceedinys. 71 



Scaudinavia is very rich in the genus Calamcujrostis, but 

 the synonymy is much involved, and opinions differ as to 

 whether some of the plants are hybrids or not. Anyone 

 interested in changes in plant-names would find plenty of 

 materials in this genus in the successive editions of Hart- 

 man's ' Handbook of the Scandinavian Flora,' fi."om the 1st 

 to the 11th. 



Among CJiaracecB, the only new one I can report is Nitella 

 capitata, Agardh, for Cambridgeshire. It is very near the 

 common N. opaca, but the whole of the fruit is covered with 

 a gelatinous substance, the ribs of the nucules are sharper, 

 and the habits, &c., different. For this we are indebted to 

 Mr. Alfred Fryer, of Chatteris, a gentleman who has explored 

 the remains of the old fen ditches with great success. 



It may well be asked : "Why this constant stream the last 

 few years of plants new to Britain ? Were I called upon to 

 answer this query I should say : Because Scotch plants in 

 particular are now being studied in relation to the Scandi- 

 navian flora. There is no doubt that our English and Irish 

 plants have been looked at from the Germanic and French 

 floras, but it is different with Scotch Botany. As soon as we 

 cross the border, and get to Dumfries and Kirkcudbright, we 

 begin to get a sprinkling of forms that speak of another flora, 

 until we get to Perth, Forfar, and Aberdeen, where a true 

 Alpine (and even Arctic) flora is found. Further northward, 

 in Caithness, we only want a more mountainous county to 

 produce a very rich flora ; but this is wanting in Caithness, 

 its highest hill being Morvan (2340 ft.]. Again, in the Ork- 

 ney and Shetland Isles we have no great elevations such as 

 occur in the Faroes, and this in combination with the more 

 northerly situation is partly the reason they possess plants we 

 do not, though I should not be surprised at a few of them 

 eventually proving British. 



In East Anglia the plants that have been found are simply 

 the result of a study of the adjacent W. European coast- 

 floras, and Norfolk and Suffolk are by no means exhausted ; 

 but it wants systematic search, such as a survey of the 

 broads and rivers would produce. In Sweden this is being 



