322 MR. W. 0. HOWARTH ON THE OCCURRENCE AND 
transverse section of the radical leaf. True juncifolia, whilst of rare occur- 
rence in this country, is probably of wider distribution than we have been 
led to believe. On the East Coast it has been collected from Yarmouth 
district, v.c. 27, Skegness, v.c. 54, Southwold, v.e. 25, and on the South Coast 
at Exmouth, v.c. 3 (Kew Herbarium, under “ F. duriuscula, var. marina”), 
and at Poole, v.c. 9 (“ F. rubra var. sabulicola”). This latter seems to be a 
narrower leaved form (0°6 mm. diam. and 5-costate) ; but the record is 
further interesting as Woods (1848, p. 261) says :—“ Towards the harbour 
(Poole) the sandhills yielded me ...... Festuca rubra of the form which 
has been called sabulicola by some continental botanists.” 
II. EXAMINATION OF THE GROUP. 
It is clear that whilst Hackel’s system may be an excellent analysis of a 
difiicult and complex group, yet the application of his long strings of names 
is, to say the least, cumbersome. Both heterophylla (Lam.) and juncifolia 
(St. Am.) stand out distinctly from the rest. In fact it seems that F. hetero- 
phylla has no place in the ovina-rubra group, and must be placed apart as a 
distinct species, mainly on the characters of its ovary and its radical leaf. 
F. juneifolia (St. Am.) has similar claims. Placed side by side with 
F. rubra, or better with the form arenaria of F. rubra, the two are unmis- 
takable. In both panicle and leaf characters they differ, the outstanding 
differences being :— 
F. rubra, arenaria. F. juncifolia. 
l. As many intravaginal as extravaginal 1. Branches mostly or all extravaginal. 
branches, | 
2. Laminæ, blunt apex. | 2. Laminæ, sharp point. 
^» keeled in transverse section. | 5 complicate (suborbicular). 
5 5-7 nerves. | » 7-11 nerves. 
4,  3-5-7-costate. | »  5-pluri-costate. 
" scler. distinct. | 5» scler. continuous. 
3. Sterile glumes unequal. | 5. Sterile glumes subequal. 
4, Fertile glumes broader about or above 4. Fertile glumes broader in the lower half, 
the middle, aristate. | mucronate or shortly aristate. 
We have, then, as distinct species, F. heterophylla (Lam.) and X. juneifolia 
(St. Am.), and this leaves us with F. eu-rubra, which is here correspondingly 
treated specifically as #. rubra. Under F. rubra, genuina and fallax fall into 
two natural and parallel groups, as we have seen, distinct in vegetative 
habit. They can rightly be regarded therefore as two subspecies of F. rubra. 
Occasional intermediate forms are met witl,—for instance, Hackel bas 
determined one as “genuina vulgaris ad. var. fallax vergens, "—but the 
division can be maintained by regarding forms which have anything in the 
nature of stolons, however few, as belonging to genuina, aud reserving the 
strictly cæspitose forms as jallaw. Subsp. falla is more restricted in its 
distribution than is subsp. genuina, and in this country at any rate seems to 
