292 BOTANY OF NORMAN 's LAW. [OctoheV, 



smaller and slenderer plant than var. ^, seldom exceeding one 

 foot in height, has the clusters stalked, and the inflorescence looks 

 like a little umbel ; it moreover prefers grassy places in a gravelly 

 soil, var. jB growing in a peaty soil. 



Var. /3 is a far more robust plant than a, and has the flowers 

 and seeds in a compact congested capitulum, or head, and is a 

 taller plant than a, often being two feet in length. Both these 

 forms occur on the margin of Methven Bog, a occupying the 

 drier ground, where the soil is gravelly, /S the moist, where the soil 

 is peaty. I would suggest the abolition of L, multijiora altogether, 

 and make a and y8 two distinct species, calling var. a Luzula pe- 

 dicellata and var. /S L. congesta or aggregata ; the latter specific 

 name I would prefer. This is not a new discovery of mine ; T 

 have observed the two plants in question years since, and from 

 close observation am perfectly satisfied in my own mind that they 

 are two different species, and no more related to each other than 

 L. campestris and L. sylvatica. I should like that botanists will 

 just be at the trouble to examine for themselves, and not take 

 for granted what others bring forward, but ever bear in mind that 

 the greatest and wisest and most observant of men are sometimes 

 in error, and liable to go astray as well as others of less extensive 

 information. I should like extremely well to have the views of 

 some of my botanical brethren upon the Luzula in question, in a 

 future number of this Journal. 



[Our excellent correspondent may be satisfied that his appeal 

 to the readers of the ' Phytologist ' will not be unproductive of 

 results.] 



BOTANY OF NORMAN'S LAW. 



An Afternoon^s Botanizing on Norman's Law, parish of Abdie, 

 Fifeshire, in June, 1862. By C. Howie. 



We drove along the Newburgh road, from Cupar, the county 

 town, to a smithy, opposite to a branch road winding upwards to 

 Norman^s Law, the scene of our journey. The smith welcomed 

 us, as all Scotch smiths do, to the hospitalities of his smithy and 

 his kind attention. The young botanists of the company, accus- 

 tomed to the smile of their " aiu fireside," were not awed by the 



