927 



cd near the male spike ; while some are barren at the base and others 

 at top. 



C. speirostachya would seem to be more common in this comitry 

 than C. fulva. The only habitats for the last that I know of, are Ca- 

 toHy near Shrewsbury, quoted by Goodenough. Kent, sent to me by 

 Mr. Peete ; and the Northern Mountains of Ireland, found by Mac- 

 reight and given to Mr. Forster. I cannot satisfactorily quote other 

 places. C. speirostachya I have from Scotland, Wales, Yorkshire 

 and Somersetshire. I shall endeavour to interest British botanists in 

 the subject, to fix the localities of the two plants, and to collect spe- 

 cimens with ihe roots and mature fruit, that the question maybe 

 more satisfactorily settled as to specific difference between them. 



Mr. Babington, if I mistake not, leaves the question of specific dif- 

 ference undetermined : his book is not by me. F. Boott. 



Gower Street, March 23, 1843. 



[Mr. Babiugton includes Carex speirostachya under C. fulva: it may not he amiss 

 to give here his characters. — Ed.l 



"C./?</m (Good.); fertile spikes oblong-oval distant with exserted stalks, bracts 

 foliaceous tvith elongated sheaths, glumes acute not mucronate, fr. ovate triquetrous 

 ribbed smooth with a straight rough-edged bifid beak, nut obovate trigonous nearly 

 smooth, St. acutely triangular rough-edged. — E. B. 1295.— St. about a foot high. Bar- 

 ren spike spindleshaped, acute : glumes obtuse. Lowest bract frequently, but not always, 

 reaching up to the barren spike. Root sometimes creeping.— /3. hornschuchiana ,• fer- 

 tile spikes oblong on longer stalks more distant, fr. more inflated and more strongly 

 ribbed, st. bluntly triangular smooth except sometimes near the top, lowest bract long- 

 er than its own spike. C. speirostachya Sm. E. B. S. 2770. C. hornschuchiana H. b. 

 40., Koch, Kunth, &c. Probably a distinct species. — Boggy places. /3. Peaty bo^s 

 chiefly on mountains. P. VI." — Man. Brit. Bot. 343. 



Art. CCIX. — Notice of ' Tlie London Journal of Botany,^ No. 27, 

 March, 1844. By Sir W. J. Hooker, K.H., LL.D., F.R.A. 

 and L.S., Vice-President of the Linnean Society, and Director 

 of the Royal Botanical Gardens of Kew. London : H. Bailli- 

 ere, 219, Regent Street. 



In the present number of this Journal there is much interesting 

 matter under the head of " Botanical Information ; " but as this for 

 the most part consists of notices of new works on Botany, we can do 

 little more than give a sort of running summary of the article. 



In Mr. Fielding's ' Sertum Plantarum ' a work similar to Hooker's 

 ' Icones Plantarum' in its plan, but containing different subjects, will 



