1880] A bewildering Plant. 281 



species. A number of continental botanists wrote on the 

 subject to Mr. Bennett, all testifying to its unlikeness from 

 any plant in the European Flora. "By its rarity and 

 sterility/' wrote Dr. Nyman, of Stockholm, " may it not be 

 supposed to be an ancient species that is becoming extinct, 

 because the climatic conditions are changed?" 



Some fatality seemed to attend the records of P. lanceo- 

 latus for Ireland, where, on the supposition of its being an 

 ancient species, it might well be expected to occur. It had 

 been doubtfully included in the " Cybele Hibernica," on the 

 strength of specimens which afterwards, when submitted 

 to Professor Babington, were referred to another species. 

 In the supplement it was therefore excluded. In 1855 it 

 had also been recorded by Mr. More from Castle Taylor, 

 but this he withdrew as an error in 1860. Thirdly, in 1882 

 Mr. Bennett again recorded it for Ulster, specimens having 

 been sent him about which there was -no mistake except, 

 as afterwards transpired, as to the place where they had 

 been gathered. But this was sufficient ground for a third 

 erasure of the species. Finally, in 1891, Potamogeton 

 lanceolatus of Smith was recorded once again, this time 

 from the county Clare ; and notwithstanding the scepticism 

 which its previous history rendered inevitable, definitely 

 took its place as an Irish plant. With this modification, 

 however, it is still considered by botanists the only species 

 peculiar to the flora of Britain. 



Corresponding with his botanical friends about the 

 Anglesea rarities, he was consulting Mr. Newton on 

 another Welsh (or partly Welsh) question. 



(October qth, 1880.} Will you kindly give me five minutes help 

 about the Ptarmigan ? We have only got the 1812 edition of Pennant, 

 so that I cannot trace up his earliest notice of the Ptarmigan as found 

 near Keswick. . . . Could you kindly consult any (earlier) edition of 

 Pennant? Latham (1783) uses the very same words as those in the 

 Pennant of 1812, but always says " as well as in Wales," which, of all 

 people, Pennant should have known. Yet Latham seems the original 

 (and only ?) authority for Wales as far as my books go, and then this 

 has been copied over and over again, and Westmoreland added, I 

 suppose, without any fresh information. 



His article on the "alleged former occurrence of the 



