441 
intention is to be useful to you in the great work 
in which you are now engaged*. If any part of 
this detail answers that end, it will afford me the 
highest gratification. 
Believe me, dear Sir, 
Most sincerely yours, 
Tuomas Butr. 
Professor James Beattie} to J. EL. Smith. 
Dear Sir, Aberdeen, June 12, 1800. 
Accept of my warmest acknowledgements for 
your attention to my last communications and con- 
descension in answering my impertinent queries. 
Iam happy that the packet was found to contain 
some new plants, and that they came so seasonably. 
—The Carices, which you have pronounced new, 
were long thorns in my path. Often did I give 
them up; but when they again occurred, a new in- 
vestigation was the consequence, and as fruitless as 
the former. My doubts and difficulties are now 
dispelled; and the genus Carex, from being the 
most obscure in the system, is now that with which 
I am best acquainted. I only hesitate a little as to 
the proper character of C. Micheliana. The cir- 
cumstance of the female spikes being crowned with 
males is a striking one; but I question its con- 
stancy. I have many specimens gathered on the 
same spot, and (as I suppose) of the same species, 
* Flora Britannica, 
+ Author of The Minstrel and The Hermit. 
