674 



through the mystification of modern commentators, and consequent 

 misapplication or crossing of names. 



" 847. Myosotis palustris, Linn. 



" Area 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 * [17 18.] 



" South limit in Cornwall, Isle of Wight, Kent. 



" North limit in Forfar, Perth, ? 



"Estimate of provinces 16. Estimate of counties 75. 



"Latitude 50—57 (58). British type of distribution. 



"Agrarian region. Inferagrarian — Midagrarian zones. 



"Descends to the coast level, in the Peninsula. 



" Ascends to 100 or 200 yai^ds, in England. 



" Range of mean annual temperature 52 — 47. 



" Native. Paludal. Three species, as they are now held to be, 

 were formerly included under this name by British botanists. In con- 

 sequence, doubts will arise in many cases to which of those three 

 species the name has been applied by individual authors. Accord- 

 ing to my own opportunities for observation, the true M. palustris, or 

 that described as such in Hooker's British Flora and Babington's 

 Manual, has the most restricted geographical range in Britain ; and 

 though probably the commonest of the three in the southern provinces 

 and lower agrarian zone, yet it appears to become the most rare in 

 the northern provinces and upper agrarian zone, if found at all in this 

 latter zone, which it is not satisfactorily ascertained to be. In the 

 Flora of Shetland, M. palustris and M. caespitosa are enumerated; 

 but there seems good reason to infer that the former name really in- 

 tends the species M. repens. In the Catalogue of Hebridean plants, 

 we find M. repens and M. caespitosa, without M. palustris. In the 

 Orkney Catalogue and Moray Flora, M. palustris is the only species, 

 or only name, mentioned ; and likely enough it there stands for the 

 two species enumerated among the plants of the Hebrides. In Mur- 

 ray's Northern Flora, M. palustris and M. secunda are the two names 

 used ; but the descriptions here come in to assist us, and they show 

 sufficiently well that the former name means the species M. caespitosa, 

 while the latter name is a synonym for M. repens. In the Flora 

 Abredonensis, M. palustris and M. caespitosa are enumerated ; the 

 former name probably intending the species M. repens, and the latter 

 being applied correctly. In the Flora of Forfarshire, all the three 

 species and names are included. I have collected the three species 

 myself in Perthshire ; but only M. repens and M. caespitosa to the 

 north of the Grampians. Still, it cannot be deemed unlikely that the 



