336 Mr. J. E. BrciiENo's Observations 



ries so much, according to the soil in which it grows, as to render 

 it difficult to assign the limits between it and /3, and some of the 

 foreign species. Many botanists indeed have considered the bog 

 variety as a distinct species. Ray, Dillenius, Sibthorp, Withering, 

 and the French botanists are of this opinion. On the other hand, 

 Linnteus, Willdenow, Curtis, and Sir James Smith regard it only 

 as a variet}'. To the latter opinion I assent after much examination. 

 Sir James Smith, Flor. Brit. 386. in his /3 has only described that 

 variety growing in bogs with a conglomerate head, composed, as 

 Ray says, "ex pluribus veluti globulis coacervata;" but mine 

 includes not only this, but another, equally common, the y of Lin- 

 naeus, where the little heads stand on long footstalks, growing 

 something like the one figured by Linnaeus, Flor. Lap. t. x. 2., and 

 yet totally distinct from it. Sir James Smith is at a loss to recon- 

 cile Ray's synonyms ; but all the figures to which he refers are 

 without doubt intended for the plant in its pedunculated state. 

 Desvaux has made Linna;us's /3 and mine a new species, which he 

 calls Lxizula erecta, as above quoted. I cannot, however, agree 

 w^ith this arrangement, being quite satisfied that Linuaeus's plant, 

 Flor. Lap. I. c, is a good species, and is to be known by the 

 leaves being narrower and nearly destitute of hairs, the stems 

 compressed, and spikes umbellated. Wahlenburg, who has given 

 it a place in his valuable Flora, calls it Juncus pallcscens, with 

 this definition : " foliis planis, culmo compresso, spicis umbella- 

 tis oblongis pedunculatis patentibus, bractea foliacea." I have 

 not observed it in any collection of British plants, though it is 

 very likely to be a native of the northern mountains. 



5. LUZULA SPICATA. 



LuzuLA spicA racemosa, nutante, spiculis sessilibus bracteatis, 



capsulis acutis. 



Juncus 



