POA LAXA AND POA STRICTA. 423 
P. laxa, Haenke, var. lawa proper, Hooker f. ‘ Student’s Flora,’ 
p- 443 (1870). 
P. laxa, var. vivipara, Anderss. ‘Gram. Scand. ex Syme, 
E. B. xi. p. 116 in syn. 
Exstce. P. alpina, A. Croall, ‘ Plants of Braemar,’ pro parte. 
Fru. Syme, E. B. xi. t. 1768, sub nom. P. stricta. 
Descr.—Rootstock shortly creeping or slightly cwspitose ; 
plant flaccid; panicle in the young state scarcely exserted, very 
narrow, afterwards with long panicle-branches, the lower of 
which are deflexed, viviparous ; leaves flat, tapering gradually to 
a point ; the upper stem-leaf not very much shorter than the 
root-leaves, and situated above the middle of the stem; upper 
ligules long, acute. The leaf shape distinguishes it from typical 
P. alpina, and it is known from Poa laa by the upper leaf being 
always above the middle of the stem, by the flat, not folded leaves, 
the shape of viviparous panicle, and by the hairs at the base of 
the florets being very short. In P. lara var. scotica the panicle 
closes in fruit ; in P. alpina var. acutifolia the viviparous panicle 
is widely open in the late autumn, but in the early condition it 
is very narrow and compact, whereas in the young state the 
panicle of P. lara var. scotica is open. 
Hab. Shady rock-ledges, and in the gully called “ The Spout,” 
Lochnagar, South Aberdeenshire, alt. 2600-3000 feet. 
The earliest British specimens with which I am acquainted are 
those gathered by George Don, and issued by him in his ‘ Herb. 
Brit.’ (cited above) in 1804. He sent them with other plants 
gathered on Ben Nevis to Knapp, who, in his ‘Gramina 
Britannica,’ sub t. 51, refers both gatherings to P. flexuosa, 
quoting Don as saying that on Ben Nevis it is usually, and on 
Lochnagar it is always viviparous. . 
Parnell, in his ‘Grasses of Scotland,’ p. 83, t. xxviii. (1842), 
describes P. Java from Ben Nevis at about 4300 feet as having 
the florets not webbed, the upper leaf flat and shorter than the 
sheath, and distinguishes it from P. alpina by the panicle being 
more slender and somewhat drooping, the root not tufted, upper 
leaf flat and taper-pointed, and the spikelets oblong-ovate. His 
variety fleawosa is mostly viviparous, with wavy panicle-branches 
and the leaves mostly short. The description of his lava fits my 
plant, but the figure xxxviii. shows a plant which is not viviparous ; 
whereas the figure of his var. flexuosa resembles closely my 
