1886-87.] On a New British Species of Sagina. 33 



1. With regard to its history Mr Boyd writes as follows : — 

 " The plant was found among a number of other plants 

 brought by me from Braemar in the autumn of 1878. I do 

 not remember gathering the Sagina, and did not remember 

 seeing it till plantmg out the rest of the collections on that 

 occasion after my return home." 



2. Eegarding its generic position. At the time of year 

 that I received the plant there were, unfortunately, but few 

 flowers, yet enough to show that it is clearly a Sagina, though, 

 as will be seen presently, aberrant in structure. 



3. The specific name. As the descriptions of none of the 

 European species of Sagina fitted the plant, I asked my 

 friend, Mr A. Bennett, of Croydon, to send a small specimen, 

 which I had dried, to Dr Lange, of Copenhagen, in case he 

 might be able to recognise it. Dr Lange, however, could not 

 throw much light on the subject, since the few flowers in the 

 specimen were obscure. He suggested a comparison with 

 some Greenland forms of Sagina procuuibens, and with S. 

 muscosa, Jord. The latter is, according to Nyman, a sub- 

 species of S. procumhcns, and a native of hills of the soutli of 

 France. Now, so far as the habit of our plant goes, it is just 

 possible that it might be considered to be a very extreme 

 form of S. procumhens, but, as the structure of the flowers is 

 so very different, there seems to be no course open but to 

 suppose that it is a distinct and apparently undescribed 

 species. Under these circumstances, and to draw attention to 

 the plant in hope that it may be rediscovered in Glen Callater, 

 I venture to give it a name, calling it after its discoverer, so 

 well known for his explorations of our Scottish hills. 



Sagina Boyclii, n. sp. — Perennial, quite glabrous, densely 

 tufted, the internodes so shortened as to be scarcely visible; 

 leaves crowded, regularly recurved; terminal rosette barren, 

 lateral branches very short, crowded, producing flowers in the 

 axils of the leaves; peduncles erect, about as long as the leaves; 

 flowers pentamerous or tetramerous, sepals always more or 

 less erect; petals none, styles very short, widely separated at 

 the base ; capsule globose, shorter than the sepals. 



Forming dense cushions. Subterranean stem much 

 branched, rooting. The aerial portion of the stem erect, 



TRANS. BOT. SOC. VOL. XVII. C 



