22 
MR. A. BENNETT ON MEDICAGO SYLVESTRIS, M. FALCATA, 
the var. maritima, Gray. Nat. Ar. Brit. FI. (1821), 605) and 
I have found it flowering and fruiting in October at Icklingham. 
Carex ericetorum. Pollick in Hist. PI. Palat. ii. (1777) 
580. 
“ Found by C. C. Babington and J. Ball in 1838 on the 
Gogmagog Hills, Cambridge, but remained undistinguished 
till 1861.” Eng. Botany Supp. t. 2971. 1863. 
The date, 1838, must, I think, be an error, as Syme in 
Eng. Bot. (ed. 3) says : “ Gathered by Prof. Babington and 
Mr. J. Ball in 1833,” and Babington himself in a letter to 
Mr. Duthie, dated October 8, 1874. remarks : “ As far as 
I can remember the date of the Carex being first gathered 
was 1833, but I believe it is stated in Eng. Bot. 2971.” In 
the same letter he says : “ Mildenhall heath is not at all 
a likely place for ericetorum.’' Having found it on chalky 
banks, its occurrence on a sandy heath seemed unlikely; but 
my friends, Dr. Ward and Mr. Reeves, found it abundant 
there. On May 21, 18 77, Mr. H. C. Watson wrote me : 
“ Somewhere between 1830-40 Sir W. Trevelyan received this 
Carex labelled as C. pilulifera. He or some one else struck 
out the specific name ; but nobody, Balfour, Babington, or 
others made out what the specimens were, until Mr. Webb 
went to Edinburgh two or three years ago.” These specimens 
came from Mildenhall heath, W. Suffolk, and were gathered 
in 1829. It is curious the name of pilulifera. I can well 
understand any one naming ericetorum as C. praecox (for 
which they were originally gathered by Mr. Babington and 
Ball), but not as pilulifera. 
In the ‘ Naturalist’s Journal ' of Sir J. Cullum,* F.S.A., 
F.R.S., are two notices of “ Carex montana, on Newmarket 
heath, April 12, 1775 ; April 12, 1776. Haec est quae in 
siccis Ericetis prima omnium Caricum floret.” FI. Sufi. (1889), 
p. 378. Dr. Hind observes on this : “ The locality on dry 
* He was Rector of Hawsted, 1762, of Great Thurlow, 1774, died 1785. 
He discovered Veronica verna, and was author of the History of 
Hawstead, 1784. 
