COL. FEILDEN ON VERTEBRATE AND PLANT LIFE ON BEN NEVIS. 247 
attaches to plants growing at the highest altitude in the British 
isles, I submitted these specimens for the examination of 
Mr. H. D. Geldart, who has favoured me with the following 
report. 
Note by Mr. H. D. Geldart. 
The plants which Colonel Feilden has brought from Ben Nevis, 
and which I exhibit on his behalf to-night, do not show any signs 
of hardship from cold or want of nutrition, on the contrary, the 
specimen of Saxifragn dellaris is the most vigorous 1 have ever 
seen. Out of a full score of specimens from the counties of 
Aberdeen, Carnarvon, Cumberland, and Kerry, there is not one 
which will compare with it in size and habit; it has three 
flowering stems, the tallest five inches high, and lias had seventeen 
llowers. 
The Carex must be considered as only doubtfully named ; the 
two specimens have only one small fertile spikelet between 
them, not affording sufficient material for careful dissection. 
Mr. Arthur Bennett, to whom the fertile specimen has been shown, 
takes exception to the habit of the root stock. 1 have, however, 
a specimen from Clova, which I believe to be rightly named, with 
a somewhat similar though much smaller root stock ; to me the 
plant seems to be Carex rariflora , Sm., with very luxuriant leaves 
and but little flower. 
The Deschampsia cwspitosa belongs to Parnell’s variety 
lomjiaristata , the awns agreeing well with his Plate cv. The 
stems to the tip of the panicle are about fifteen inches high. 
With the flowering plants there were two specimens of 
Polytrichum commune, without fruit, from the same spot. 
H. D. Geldart. 
VOL. VI. 
