78 SOME ADDITIONS TO THK DORSET FLORA. 



Regis ; there was the same sort of herbage growing in the marsh, 

 and after some research I was repaid by the discovery of several 

 plants of the Ct/perus. A fortnight later I was in the same neigh- 

 bourhood, and in the course of a walk I saw it again a considerable 

 distance from the first station, one plant being of unusual size, and 

 bearing, I should say, from 20 to 30 stbms, each with their cluster 

 of fruit. 



There is no need for me to describe here the features of this 

 interesting sedge ; it is well described in existing manuals. The 

 importance of the discovery is not merely in the addition of a good 

 plant for the county, but in the testimony to the indigenous 

 character of the species. It has been argued that a rare plant, 

 which has only one station, was probably introduced ; and that, 

 therefore, it is likely that the plant on Shalford Common was 

 introduced, l^ow we find a thoroughly native station in Dorset, 

 and another in Hants ; consequently the doubt which some have 

 entertained regarding the Surrey station is removed. 



Two more interesting plants belonging to the Cyperacece 

 have been added to the County Flora during the past summer, 

 both of them species that were already recorded for Hants. 

 One is the rare Cotton-grass Eriop)liorum gracile, Koch (non 

 Sm.). Oddly enough this species was discovered only just 

 in time to be entered in. Townsend's Flora of Hants, some 

 ten years ago ; and there is a very good account of it in 

 one of the Appendices to that work. And now it has turned 

 up in Dorset just in time to appear in an Appendix (though not in 

 its proper order) in the forthcoming Flora of Dorset. Having 

 already during the month of May taken the opportunity offered by 

 the dry season of penetrating fartlier than before into some of the 

 bogs of the New Forest and gathered E. gracile^ Koch, on three 

 occasions, I had become familiar with its facies, and formed the 

 opinion that it ought to be found in tliis county also. I was 

 almost disappointed that in so likely a locality as Morden Decoy 

 this species declined to appear, though Cotton-grass abounded. 

 But in the neighbourhood of Littlesea last June, after examining 



