:U0 TUANSACTIONS AND I'KOCEKDINGS OV TIIK [Sess. lxvii. 



With marshes near the sea as its habitat, C. /Jivisa is, in the 

 Ih'itish Isles, a local plant. In England, for example, we find 

 it occurring sparingly from Cornwall along the south coast, 

 and up the eastern coast as far as to south-east Yorkshire, 

 in which district there is perhaps more of it than anywhere 

 else, for Eobinson, in the " Flora of the East Hiding," 

 recently issued, says that though not of common occurrence, 

 it is plentiful, where found, at stations near Hull. 



Our object here is to refer to what we now know of 

 this Sedge as a Scottish plant. Eighty-two years ago. 

 Sir William Hooker, in his "Flora Scotica," published in 

 1821, stated, on the testimony of George Don — whose 

 accuracy at that time had not been impugned — that C. 

 divisa occurred in a " Marsh near Montrose, and 

 sea-coast of Angus-shire, chiefly in marshy places." 

 Hooker probably obtained his information from an elaborate 

 ])aper by Don himself, entitled, "Account of the Xative 

 Plants in the County of Forfar," which was contributed in 

 1813 to Headrick's "General View of the Agriculture of 

 the County of Angus or Forfarshire." In this account, on 

 page 31, where allusion is made to the plant under our 

 notice, there occurs the following sentence : — " By the 

 roadside, in coming from the North Water Bridge, he 

 (i.e. the botanist) will find the C. divisa, one of the rarest 

 Carices." 



As Hewett Cottrell Watson asks in the " Cybele 

 liritannica " in 185 2, was it not strange that neither 

 Mr. Gardiner, whose admirable " Flora of Forfarshire " 

 appeared in 1848, nor any other botanist up to that time, 

 would seem to have verified or confirmed any one station 

 for the plant in Forfarshire ? But what shall we say to 

 the fact that until 1901, and completing an interval of 

 eighty-eight years, no botanist had been able, of his own 

 knowledge, to declare C. divisa to be a Forfarshire plant, 

 but instead had to fall back on the statement made by 

 Don. 



It is indeed satisfactory that Don's doubted information 

 of such old date should, in o\ir day, be proved to be correct. 

 In August of 1901, Mr. James Menzies, a member of the 

 Perthshire Society of Natural Science, brought from a 

 marsh near Montrose some specimens of a Carex new to 



