b5. CYPEBACE^. 93 



1208. Carex incurva, Liglitf. 



Axea ************* [l*j 15 * 1' ■••"• 



South limit in Fife ? Forfar, Kincardine. 



North limit in Shetland, Hebrides ? Sutherland. 



Estimate of provinces 4. Estimate of counties 9. 



Latitude 56—61. Scottish type of distribution. 



Agrarian region. SuperagTarian zone. 



Descends to the sea level, in East Highlands. 



Ascends, at the sea level, to North Highlands. 



Eange of mean annual temperature 48 — 45. 



Native. Littoral. Among eleven counties recorded for 

 this distinct-looking Carex, two are very probably errone- 

 ous, and two others may be said to require verification. 

 Mr. Thomas Edmondston (Phytol. i. 105) recorded it as 

 found on the shores of Edinburgh and Linlithgow, al- 

 though it appears never to have been seen there by any of 

 the scores of botanical collectors who have herborized on 

 those shores. Mr. Maughan (Hook. Scot.) reported it 

 from the Links of St. Andrews, Fifeshire ; a locality not 

 imhkely. And Mr. Babington (Manual) wi'ote, " A single 

 specimen, gathered on the sands at Scaristra, in the isle 

 of Harris, belongs either to this species or to C. steno- 

 phylla (Willd.)" But in the second and third editions of 

 the same truly useful work, no mention is made of this 

 doubtful plant and station ; so that we are left in the dark, 

 whether C. incurva has or has not been found in Harris. 

 It is one of the small defects of Mr. Babington's writings, 

 to omit the correction of his past errors, by dropping them 

 unnoticed. A printed record, however, remains a record, 

 whether true or erroneous ; and it can be confirmed or re- 

 pudiated only by a second record. 



