Jbund on Loch-na-gar, in Aberdeenshire. ^G5 



alpina it differs, in having three instead of two florets, a small 

 and few-flowered panicle, and in many other characters. It 

 atrees with A. fiexuosa in the appearance of the panicle and 

 colour of the florets, the former, however, not being triple-forked, 

 and having more flowers, and the latter being smaller. It dif- 

 fers from it in many particulars ; for example, the sheathed 

 stem, the broader and longer leaves, the longer florets, shorter 

 awns, &c. It is not Smith's var. fioi A Jlexuosa . A. bottnica or 

 atro-purpurea of Wahlcnberg it cannot be- Smith says A. mon- 

 tana of Linnaeus was not known to Hudson, whose montana he 

 refers to his own pale-flowered Aira Jlexuosa /3. It agrees suffi- 

 ciently with Linnaeus''s A. montana ; but before difficulties can 

 be solved in a satisfactory manner, without the impracticable ex- 

 pedient of having recourse to the actual specimens of authors, 

 descriptions must be more minutely accurate than those which 

 we are accustomed to see. Even Smith, of British botanists 

 JacilUme princeps, affiards little aid in the present case. There 

 is still ample field for enthusiasts in our own country. The 

 Outer Hebrides, almost the whole of the mountainous districts 

 of the north of Scotland, and numberless nooks in all parts of it, 

 are untrodden soil. On the other hand, many plants are admit- 

 ted as indigenous which are not so. Who ever saw the Bedford 

 willow, for example, growing wild in Scotland .'' And as to geo- 

 graphical distribution, the connexion of rock with soil, and of 

 soil with vegetation, the changes which plants undergo, the in- 

 ferences deducible therefrom, and apphcable to specific distinc- 

 tions, the arithmetic of botany, the comparisons of climates and 

 latitudes, the organization of plants, and the radiance which it 

 is yet destined to throw on geology, — these are subjects unheed- 

 ed, probably undreamt of, by persons who would risk their necks 

 to get a rare plant from an alpine crag, and incur the danger of 

 being drowned in a quagmire, for the purpose of gathering a 

 new Scirpus ; and who, moreover, smile at the idea of philoso- 

 phizing in botany, which is in this country little better than a 

 broken string of imperfect specific characters, and abortive at- 

 tempts at grouping plants by means of latitudinarian criteria, 

 by which varieties are confounded with species, and species re- 

 ceive common characters which do not exist in nature. 



