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112 PLANTS FOUND IX KERRY.
submerged form," and about which there was then some doubt
however, after examining last year's series, Mr. Bennett seems satisfied
the phmt is rightly named. It is probably the form which Syme
called •' ['. 'pohjiionifulius v. j)seudo-fiuitans," and is a common plant
in most of the Kerry mountain streams. Another visit was also
paid to the River Laune, a regular storehouse of puzzling forms. A
plant gathered in the river near its exit from the lake Mr. Bennett
names P. nitens var. hitifulius Tis. Seeing this curious form
growing on the spot, it seemed hard to resist the conviction that
the plant was a hybrid, with P. jwr/uliatas (which is the most
abundant pondweed in this portion of the river) as one of its
parents. Another form, gathered lower down the river, Mr.
Bennett names P. nitens var. salicifalius (Fr. ?), and says that
some of my specimens so exactly match others gathered by Mr. C.
Bailey in Scotland, near Oban, that they might have been taken off
the same plant ; this form is very abundant in the river. Of the
above two plants, both fresh and dried examples were sent to
Croydon. The chief object, however, of this visit to the Laune
was to gather fresh specimens of the plant sent by me to Mr.
Bennett in 1888, and thought by him to be a form of P. Zizii. I
had gathered this near the Killorglin end of the Laune, about
sixteen miles from the lake, and though last summer I descended
the river six or seven miles, I could find nothing to quite match
the P. Zizii form, its place being here taken by P. nitens var.
salicifoli7is. Mr. Bennett sums up the differences between these
two plants by pointing out that while the peduncles and spikes
(immature) of the 1888 plant belong to the lucens type, those of the
1889 plant are of the nitens type ; and that while the leaves of the
former are only narrowed into the stem, those of the latter are certainly
amplexicaul. I notice also that the long narrow leaves of
the 1888 plant often have the lucens " mucro," while the leaves of the
1889 plant have not. I have little doubt these three Potamogetons
are hybrids, and that several interesting problems in this troublesome
genus are waiting to be worked out in the River Laune. I
am glad to learn Mr. Bennett has succeeded in growing some of the
plants I sent him last summer, so we may hope for some light on
the subject before long.
Several interesting Carices were also gathered, including some
apparent hybrids. More Carex aqaatilis Wahl. was discovered
round the head of Caragh Lake, and what seems the same plant
was found growing abundantly along a small boggy stream among
the mountains, near the head of the Upper Lake, Killarney. The
fertile spikes of this plant were erect, and I could see no veins on
the fruit ; but some of the specimens gathered aj)pear to come very
near to C. acuta, while the whole plant was much greener and
stronger than the Caragh Lake C. aquatilis. A form of C. praox
Jacq. was found, in which the stalk of the lowest spike sometimes
exceeds two inches in length, with the sheathing base of the bract
over half an inch long ; in one specimen gathered, the lowest
spike springs from a bract near the base of the stem, and its stalk
of fully ten inches brings the spike to nearly its usual position in