128 



two plants, whether distinct species or merely different states of the same species, are 

 confined to a calcareous soil, yet each has its own favourite modification of such a soil , 

 and neither of them seems to occur except where the subordinate beds of limestone 

 crop out. But our limits prevent our pursuing this interesting enquiry any farther at 

 present. 



The subject recommended to he attended to in the sixth rule is an exceedingly im- 

 portant one, and in one of its divisions — that relating to variations caused by change 

 of situation or season, closely connected with the fourth. We however could not ex- 

 pect any infonnation of this nature in a catalogue, whilst a local Flora would scarcely 

 he complete without it. 



A " Table of Altitudes within or on the borders of the Province of Moray," and 

 extracts from meteorological journals kept at Elgin and Kingussie, nearly the most dis- 

 tant points of the Province, are very valuable additions to the Collectanea. The al- 

 titudes vary from 54 to 4390 feet. A comparison of the annual means of three years' 

 observations of the thermometer and rain-gauge, at the two stations, exhibits a higher 

 mean temperature by 2-8212 at Elgin than at Kingussie; the mean depth of rain at 

 Kingussie exceeds that at Elgin by 6-860 inches. 



In a recent number (Phytol. 94) was a notice of Professor Balfour's discovery of 

 Monotropa Hypopitys within this province ; and in our present number are some fur- 

 ther remarks on this interesting addition to the Scottish Phsenogamic Flora. 



We must now take leave of the ' Collectanea for a Flora of Moray;' and in so do- 

 ing would again express a hope that the Botany of every district in the kingdom may 

 ere long be equally well illustrated. 



Art. XLV. — Varieties. 



80. Remarks on British Carices. In my last note (Phytol. 77) I made no enqui- 

 ry as to how far the Carices in question are distinct as species ; but it having been 

 said (Id. 27) that there are figures of the fruit and its appendages of all the British 

 Carices, if these Carices be British, we should certainly expect to find them there. Of 

 Carex stictocarpa and angustifolia Hooker tells us he knows nothing, except what is 

 said in Smith's ' English Flora ; ' and if Smith be correct in his descriptions, and I 

 have no reason to believe otherwise, Carex stictocarpa is a very different plant from C. 

 recurva. Of the latter I possess 79 varieties, and none of them will at all answer to 

 the description given in ' English Flora ' or the figure in ' English Botany.' What 

 Hudson's Carex recurva might be I know not, but I consider C. angustifolia quite as 

 distinct from ceespitosa as either C. stricta, aquatilis or acuta, although Hooker, in the 

 ] st edition of his ' British Flora,' placed acuta in quite another division of his Carices. 

 If Sir W. J. Hooker had ever seen Schkuhr's beautiful figure of C. tenella, I think he 

 would never have said " May it not be a starved state of" C. remota. The two sta- 

 mens of C. tenella I consider to be alone sufficient to keep it distinct as a species, to say 

 nothing of its very smooth fruit, which is said to be convex on each side, with an entire 

 beak. A fruit like this is very much at variance with Mr. Leighton's description of 

 Carex remota, wherein he says, — the fruit is " plano-convex, ribbed, margins rough, 

 orifice bifid." — (Flor. Shrop. 452). Mr. Leighton further says, speaking of the convex 

 side of the fruit, " with a cord-like mass of ribs which proceed downwards from the hi- 



