108 



The Naturalist. 



Seligeria acutifolia in Yorkshire. — I have to announce the discovery 

 of the typical form of Seligeria acutifolia of Lindberg, on dry limestone 

 rocks at ArnclifFe, Yorkshire, in June, 1868. I gathered the moss as a 

 form of *S^. pusilla, but I have lately been giving my collection of Seligerice 

 a thorough re-examination, and found that it agreed in every particular 

 with Prof. Lindberg's description. The typical plant has, I believe, 

 hitherto only been known to occur in Scandinavia, but the variety /3 

 longiseta was gathered near Buxton, Derbyshire, by Mr. Wilson, so far 

 back as 1831, also as a form of S. pusilla. I have sent specimens to Mr. 

 Fergusson, who writes to say that he entirely agrees with me in referring 

 them to Prof- Lindberg's 8. acutifolia, and also that they are decidedly 

 the typical form. — John Whitehead, Dukinfield, 18th January. 



Range op Luzula spicata, De Candolle. — The following notes on the 

 above are from unexceptionable sources : — From Dr. Dickie's ''Flora of 

 Aberdeen," &c. : " Upon the large boulders by the roadside between 

 Bridge of Invercauld and Castleton : height 1150 feet." Mr. Watson, 

 Cyhele Britannica, " Luzula spicata, De Cand. Descends to 550 or 500 yds. 

 (1500 feet) in East Highlands." The above in reference to " note " by Dr. 

 Buchanan White in January No. of Naturalist, mentioning a footnote of 

 Mr. F. A. Lees in Mr. Wood's paper on Cumberland Plants. — A. 

 Bennett, Croydon, Surrey, Jan. 2nd. 



Range of Luzula spicata in Scotland. — Dr. White is doubtless quite 

 right in his correction that this alpine rush is, as a matter of fact, found 

 as- low as 1000 feet in the very north of Scotland. In my note to Mr. 

 Wood's paper, intended to point a caution, by a mere lapsus calami I 

 wrote " Britain " for " England." Please read the word as " England," 

 and my observation is correct ; and the reasons for doubting if Luzula ^ 

 spicata really occurs on Blake Fell — quite a minor elevation — remaiiM 

 forcible. In Westmoreland its range is very limited, as is Myosoti^ 

 alpestris and some other north of England plants ; and in southern lati- 

 tudes one does not expect or find alpines to have such a wide vertical 

 range as in northern latitudes. A descent to 1000 feet at lat. 57° 

 (Braemar district is about that) would about correspond thermometrically 

 and climatically with 1900 or 2000 feet in north-west Yorkshire, so that, 

 looking at the matter in this light, a plant that nowhere in Braemar 

 descended below 1000 feet, I should not expect to descend below 1800 

 feet in Yorkshire. Of course in each case we must leave out the casual, 

 accidental occurrence of a single specimen or so washed down to a low 

 level by some mountain rill in spate, as such occurrences would vitiate 

 any calculation as to the climatic range of any plant, for it is mainly the 

 temperature that determines a botanical zone. The range of heat of each 

 botanical zone of 900 feet in Britain is about 3 degrees between its lowest, 

 and highest limit, but there is also a diminution for latitude independent 

 of elevation ; so that, small as is the latitudinal diminution in tempera- 

 ture of sea-level in Britain (with its sea-influence climate), compared with 



