34 



The Savin-leaved Club-moss, as its name of alpinum implies, is 

 completely an alpine plant : it occurs in great abundance on the ele- 

 vated tracts in Scotland, where I have myself seen it in localities too 

 numerous to detail; and have received a long list of habitats from Drs. 

 Greville and Balfour, Mr. Graham, &c. Tn several of the adjacent 

 islands it is also found ; and Mr. Edmonston has sent a specimen from 

 Unst, the most northerly of the Shetlands ; this specimen is ticketed 

 "Lycopodium clavatum'''' (which species is not in the collection), and 

 unfortunately is so recorded in a late number of the * Annals and Ma- 

 gazine of Natural History.'* Mr. Edmonston, vrith a laudable desire 

 to make his list as correct as possible, sent the plants themselves for 

 comparison ; and it has happened that I have had frequent opportu- 

 nities of examining the collection. In North Wales it seems to be 

 abundant on the high ground in Caernarvonshire ; particularly on the 

 ascents of Snowdon, Glyder, David, Llewellyn, &c., but it seldom 

 occurs immediately on their summits. Mr. Janson, Mr. Kippist, and 

 others have given me similar habitats : in Denbighb shire, and on Ca- 

 der Idris in Merionethshire, it occurs more sparingly. In England, 

 Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Durham, Yorkshire, 

 and Lancashire produce the species in some abundance; Miss Beever 

 informs me it is " plentiful on the Fells near Coniston." In Turner 

 and Dillwyn's 'Botanist's Guide,' i. 193, a single Cheshire habitat, 

 — " Moors above Micklehurst," — is recorded on the authority of Mr. 

 Bradley; and in the same work (i. 192), on the authority of Mr. J. 

 Martin, it is said to have been found on "Mountains near the Der- 

 went" in Derbyshire. In Ireland I found it sparingly in the counties 

 Donegal and Kerry ; and Mr. Moore has seen it on Knocklayd, Co. 

 Antrim, near Belfast, and on the Mourne Mountains. Mr. Ball of 

 Dublin writes me that he found it on Mangerton ; and having spelled 

 the name for the benefit of that nuisance to tourists, the self-styled 

 Sir Peter Courtney, that worthy engraved it on a flat stone with the 

 point of his knife, and doubtless displays his botanical lore for the 

 edification of future tourists, and to the profound admiration and hu- 

 miliation of his brother guides. 



Our early botanists have so mixed up this with another continental 

 species, Lycopodium complanatum, that it is impossible to decide to 

 which their observations are to be referred. I have little doubt that 

 Gerarde describes alpinum, although his figure evidently represents 

 complanatum, and Tragus appears to be unacquainted with it altoge- 



* In the same list Lomaria spicaiit appears as "Polypodium vulgare." 



