168 Mr, C. C. Babington on a neiv species q/Carex. 



attribute them to accidental circumstances would be, not 

 merely to acknowledge ignorance of the matter, but to express 

 that ignorance in most objectionable terms. The obscurity in 

 which the origin of these remarkable phaenomena is involved, 

 careful investigation, conducted upon sound philosophical prin- 

 ciples, can alone dispel. 



XXVII. — Description of a neiu species o/Carex found near 

 Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire. By Charles C. Babing- 

 ton, M.A., F.L.S., F.G.S., &c.* 



[With a Plate.] 



It is now nearly two years since Mr. S. Gibson of Hebden 

 Bridge was so kind as to forward to me a Carex, which he 

 had reason to believe would prove to be an undescribed spe- 

 cies. At that time he had only ventured to publish it in 

 Baines's ^ Flora of Yorkshire,' as a variety of C. ccespitosa 

 (Gooden.), but in his letters to me he expressed a decided 

 opinion that it was distinct from that species. Although con- 

 vinced that it was indeed distinct from C. Goodeiiovii (C. cae- 

 spitosa, Gooden.), it is only within the last few days that I 

 have been enabled to examine its characters wnth the requi- 

 site care to qualify myself to publish it as a true species, and 

 to study the descriptions and figures in the works that treat 

 of this genus, so as to be enabled to say with confidence that 

 it is an undescribed plant. As I have convinced myself of this, 

 I have now the pleasure of naming it in honour of its disco- 

 verer, than whom no person can be more deserving of com- 

 memoration by means of a plant of this genus, to the careful 

 study of which he has long and successfully applied himself. 



Carex Gibsoni. 



C. spica mascula solitaria, femineis 2 — 4 oblongis basi attenuatis, 

 infima breviter pedunculata, bracteis foliaceis, stigmatibus 2, fruc- 

 tibus lanceolatis in rostrum breve integrum attenuatis multinerviis 

 gluma i longioribus, acheniis late-obovatis apice rotundatis api- 

 culatisque, PI. V. 

 C. csespitosa, /3. chlorocarpos, Gibs, in Baines's Fl. of Yorkshire, p. 143. 

 Root creeping. Stems 6 — 8 inches high, triquetrous Avith 

 flat or concave faces, the angles rough towards the top. Leaves 

 from near the base of the stem, and usually about equalling it 

 in height, flat, slender, slightly rough at the edges and mid- 

 rib beneath, particularly towards the end. Bracts without 



* Read before the Botanical Society of Edinburgh. 



