290 BOTANICAL EXCURSION IN 
original form or structure, on which ac- 
count, as well as the tendency of ripe fruit 
of any sort to separate itself from the stalk, 
the Botanist will in general do well to con- 
tent himself with that which is not quite 
mature ; but he will not do well, if, because 
Linneus has founded his principal divisions 
on the flower, he should neglect the fruit 
altogether. Rosa Doniana grows at the 
top of a woody bank a little above Croft, 
on the Yorkshire side of the river; and 
near Halnaby, on the same side, there is a 
small strip of boggy ground, mostly co- 
vered with brush-wood, on the left hand of 
the road from Croft, which affords Ranun- 
culus Lingua, and a Carex, which is per- 
haps a small variety of C. paniculata, but 
not forming dense tufts, and therefore in 
some degree approaching to C. feretius- 
cula. The beak also is not abrupt, as de- 
scribed in C. paniculata, but tapers gra- 
dually from the fruit. Hooker (Brit. FI. 
ed. 3. p. 395) mentions a continental spe- 
cies, C. paradoza, which is intermediate 
between these two. That species, however, 
is described as forming very large and 
dense tufts, (see Gaudin. Fl. Helv. 6. 43) 
and therefore can have nothing to do with 
this plant. Some difficulty has arisen from 
the figure of C. teretiuscula in English 
Botany, where the scales are altogether 
brown, whereas, according to Gaudin, Z. c. 
the scales of C. teretiuscula in a young 
state have uniformly a whitish border. In 
my plant they have a pretty wide scariose 
margin. I gathered in the same place an 
Eriophorum, somewhat resembling Æ. pu- 
bescens, and having, like that, a short, close 
down on the spike-stalk. It is remarkable 
for its very slender, almost capillary leaves, 
and the naked upper part cf the culm. The 
seeds are linear, not, as in EZ. pubescens, 
obovate. They are slightly attenuate at 
the base, and of a very pale colour. This 
appears to me to be the Æ. gracile of Roth 
and of Gaudin; and, judging from the de- 
scription, I should say also of Smith; but 
ie only British specimen in the Herbarium 
of the latter, though too young for absolute 
decision, appears to be different. It is 
probably the same as that to which the 
THE NORTH OF ENGLAND. 
name has been applied of late by British. - i 
Botanists, a plant with smooth spike-stalks 
and elliptic seeds, at least such has been 
the case, so far as I have had the opportu- 
nity of examining them, and in these par- 
ticulars and in the general appearance of 
the plant, it is more nearly allied to Æ. an- 
gustifolium than to E. pubescens. The 
Herbarium of Sir J. E. Smith contains two 
other specimens, with the name of E. gra- 
cile: one from Schrader, marked in the 
writing of that Botanist “ E. triquetrum, 
Hoppe, Germany.” In this, if carefully 
examined, the spike-stalks are found to be 
pubescent, the seeds are pale and linear- 
oblong rather than linear. The other is a 
Lapland specimen from Wahlenberg; & 
stouter plant, more leafy at the base, and 
with an obviously pubescent spike-stalk. 
Another I pl 1 I i intl I on 
of Mr. Borrer, gives the idea of a slender 
plant, with a nearly naked, lengthened 
culm. It has pubescent spike-stalks, and 
oblong seeds, much like those of Schrader's 
specimen. In my younger days I had al- 
ways considered as E. polystachyon the 
plant which I am now instructed to call 
E. pubescens, and I have still no concep- 
tion of what is meant by Æ. polystachyon 
in the English Flora, which I think is not — — 
that of any other work, and which seems 
distinguished by no marked character from. 
E. angustifolium. f indeed we are - 
understand by the expression ** leaves flat, af 
that they are not any where channelled, it 
is a circumstance I have never met with in 
any species of Eriophorum, and may pos- 
sibly be a good distinction. My plant 
grew within the water of a little pool, and. 
in the same neighbourhood was a consi- - 
derable quantity of Pyrola rotundifola, 
but hardly yet in flower. 
On the 23rd June I went to Durham, to” 
meet Mr. J. Jansen, and we proceeded on: 
the 24th to Sunderland, where, in spite of 
the continued rain, we rambled over -— 
ballast-hills, but without finding any thing. 
a 
A considerable portion of these is now ege? — 
vered by cottages. Ballast-hills plants which 
ek ce RT. M Mi POS eh ae Bes n! Icrac as Lepi- 
dium Draba atSwansea, and Trifolium stel- 
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