809 



for others. But it seems that even the description of C. distans is 

 not so perfect as that Mr. G. cannot remodel and improve it. — IV. 

 Wilson; Warrington, November 6, 1843. 



405. Note on Mr* Gibsons Carex 'pseudo-'paradoxa. I observed 

 with some surprise in your last number, a paragraph by Mr. Gibson, 

 headed " Note on a new British Carex," (Phytol. 778) ; and consi- 

 dering myself in some degree obligated to maintain the correctness of 

 the Flora of this neighbourhood, I feel that I ought to afford to the 

 readers of your valuable journal, what little information I possess as 

 relating to this supposed " new species," in order that they may be 

 put in possession of the opinions and facts in connexion with it here. 

 At the present moment I will not stop to describe the exact topogra- 

 phical situation of this interesting plant, "as that is a secret;" but 

 proceed to explain the nature of the circumstances under which the 

 plant grows. All or most of your readers are doubtless aware that 

 Carex teretiuscula has always been described as having an isolated 

 and detached mode of growth ; being, in this respect, strikingly con- 

 trasted with C. paniculata, which, until recently, was its only known 

 British ally. In this, the roots form larger or smaller dense and ele- 

 vated ccBspites, or, as they are sometimes emphatically named, " stool- 

 tufts." This featm-e has been in general use of late as an excellent 

 means of diagnosis between the two plants when seen growing, and I 

 may mention that I have had an opportunity of contrasting them on 

 the same spot of gi'ound, and so far as my observations extend, this 

 difference in the formation of the roots is pennanent. In the situa- 

 tion where Mr. Gibson's " Carex pseudo-paradoxa" is found, the 

 plant has not the opportunity of displaying its characteristic property 

 of isolation, and is compelled to increase by a regular approximation 

 and aggregation of its roots : the place is a swamp, of a very small 

 extent, situated in a rather deep hollow, the site of an old marl-pit, 

 which originally was entirely filled with water. It is bounded on 

 three sides by sloping banks covered with various shrubs, and on the 

 other by the remains of the pit or pond ; thus confined, the plant has 

 assumed a singular and unusual habit : the roots are so closely inter- 

 woven with each other, as almost entirely to prevent the existence of 

 any other plant, the herbage being constituted of the foliage of this 

 plant, so as to appear like one immense and unbroken root ; as we 

 approach the water, however, it begins to separate itself into masses 

 of various sizes, and is more isolated, and in this manner assumes a 

 pseudo-caespitose appearance : this circumstance, in connexion with 

 its elongate and slender stems, and its more racemose mode of inflo- 



