CYLINDROSPERMUM iMACROSPERMUM NEAR HALIFAX. 339 



ordinary form, and I see Nyman cites ' A. gothica Payk. Hb. 

 Island.' under A. ciliata. The plant figured in ' Flora Danica,' 

 tab. 1269, is very weak and lax. The English Botany figure is much 

 more typical and satisfactory. 



A. gothica Fries, Novit. Mant. alt., p. 33; Herb. Norm., v. 34; 

 Fl. Danica Suppl., tab. 15. This was first noticed by Wahlenberg 

 in 1824 as a variety of ciliata, and was first characterised as a species 

 by Fries in 1839, who dealt with it as an endemic Gothland species. 

 It bears the same relation to norvegica that fugax bears to ciliata. 

 It has an annual root, many ascending stems 2-3 in. long, spaced-out 

 oblong acute leaves, glabrous or faintly ciliated on the edge, 

 1-4 flowers to a stem, oblong acute sepals, petals and capsule 

 scarcely longer than the calyx. The figure in ' Flora Danica ' above 

 cited is excellent and characteristic. 



I visited the Ribblehead station the second week in September, 

 and found the plant easily from Mr. Rotheray's direction. Some of 

 the specimens I cannot distinguish from the Scandinavian gothica ; 

 others agree more nearly with the Scandinavian and Shetland 

 norvegica. The plant occupies a small area by the side of a road, 

 which not long ago has been copiously mended with limestone. It 

 is associated with Arenaria serpyllifolia and Tussilago Farfara, and 

 the station is about 600 ft. above sea-level. The locality, standing 

 alone, is not satisfactory as regards the nativeness of the plant, and I 

 expect, confidently, that on further search it will be found upon the 

 limestone cliffs of the neighbouring mountains. Ingleborough, 

 Penyghent, and Whernside are all three within a few miles of 

 Ribblehead, and there are vast areas of limestone scars and lime- 

 stone pavement within a circuit of twenty miles. 



To my mind, all the forms which I have enumerated are mere 

 varieties of one and the same species. From a botanico-geographical 

 point of view, the whole series of facts is most interesting, especially 

 the erratic way in which a widely-spread arctic-alpine species is 

 dispersed in Britain, and the way in which a perennial is modified 

 into an annual to suit altered circumstances of station. Taking 

 ciliata as the type, we may regard frigida and norvegica as high 

 alpine or boreal, and fugax and gothica as low-land forms. 



NOTE—ALGJE. 



Cylindrospermum macrospermum near Halifax. — This beautiful Alga; is 

 now in tine condition in Mapledean Clough, Norland, near Halifax. The spore- 

 cells are to be seen in all stages of development ; also the cilia-like appendages 

 on the heterocysts. Any member of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union who desires 

 may have some forwarded on communicating with the writer. — Chas. Ckosslanh, 

 4, Coleridge Street, Halifax, July 23rd, 1889. 



Nov. 1880. 



