448 



CERASTIUM CERASTOIDES BRITT. IN CUMBERLAND. 



ARTHUR BENNETT. 



This species the Cerastimn trigynum Vill. of many floras, 

 and the C. lapponiciim Crantz of the 9th ed. of Babington's 

 Manual, is reported from the above cpunty in the ' Bulletin 

 of the Geological Institution of Upsala,' Vol. X., No. 19-20, 

 1910, in a paper by Gunnar Samuelsson on ' Scottish Peat 

 Mosses : a contribution to the knowledge of the late quarternary 

 vegetation and climate of North Western Europe,' p. 232, 

 footnote — ' An interesting find was made by me on Cross 

 Fell in Cumberland at an altitude of about 450 m. I found 

 Cerastium trigynum, which seems not to have before been met 

 with in England (see J. D. Hooker, the Students' Flora of the 

 British Islands).' 



This low elevation will come as a great surprise to British 

 botanists. Cross Fell is recorded as 2892 feet in altitude, and 

 had the find occurred near the summit, it would have been less 

 surprising. 



Watson's lowest record* is 2700 feet on Ben Nevis, near 

 snow. Dr. Winiamsj gives no lower limit for this species in 

 his ' The High Alpine Flora of Britain.' In Arctic Norway J 

 its lowest altitude is 143 m., (its highest, 1558 m.) near Tromso. 



In another part of Norway it occurs at 150 feet ' Sul- 

 pellebraen ' (Blytt in Norges Fl.), this is the lowest altitude 

 I can find below the Arctic Circle. 



Its Linnean name was Stcllaria cerastoides Sp. Fl. (1753), 

 P- 442. 



The Redshank in Airedale — The Redshank is not a 

 common breeding species in Airedale, so it m.ay, perhaps, be 

 as well to record that another breeding station for this species 

 was pointed out to me this year; and what, perhaps, was the 

 most remarkable feature, the breeding place was at no great 

 distance from two important industrial centres, where it 

 has bred for the last two or three years. When there in 

 June last it was evident that they had just brought off their 

 young. — E. P. Butterfield. 



* Cyb. Bntt., Vol. IV., p. 352, 1859. 



t Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist. (1909), p. 166. 



J Norman. Norges Arh. Fl. (1895), p. 15S. 



Naturalist, 



