166 Rhodora [AucusT 
Illustrated Flora! illustrate clearly the spikelet-differences between 
A. aristulatus and A. geniculatus. Although rather common in eastern 
North America, A. geniculatus does not seem to occur far away from 
the habitations or works of man, and it does not seem to be a native. 
A series of specimens from the Coastal Plain, from eastern Massa- 
chusetts southward to Florida and Texas, and northward in the 
Mississippi valley to Madison, Wisconsin, have the habit and even 
the exact awn-characters of A. geniculatus, but instead of having 
spikelets 3 mm. in length, as does that species, these coastal plain 
specimens have the mature spikelets 2-2.4 mm. in length. The 
measurements in all these cases apply to the length of the glumes, 
and do not include the awn. With the exception of the range these 
plants seem to have no other difference but the size of the spikelet 
to separate them from the European A. geniculatus. Consequently, 
it is deemed best to treat this plant as an American variety. The 
labels of the twenty-six sheets of this plant at hand are tantalizingly 
inadequate in regard to the statement of habitat. The inference is, 
however, that this plant is a native of North America. Certainly 
there are no old world species or varieties into which it fits. 
Walter described an A. carolinianus? which may have been the 
plant in question, the A. geniculatus of current manuals of the botany 
of the southern states. Walter’s description is unfortunately too brief 
to be capable of exact interpretation. Prof. A. S. Hitchcock in his 
article on “The Identification of Walter’s Grasses” 3 reports that 
no specimen of this exists in Walter’s herbarium, although Pursh seems 
to have seen it there before publishing his Flora Americae Septentri- 
onalis in 1814. Dr. Gray examined and made notes concerning Walter’s 
plants in February, 1839, but he did not consider the grasses. After a 
discussion of the conflicting evidence about A. carolinianus, Hitchcock 
concludes, “This species must remain doubtful.” 
In 1808 Poiret described * as a new species A. ramosus, giving its 
characters in great detail. These were drawn from a specimen col- 
lected by Bosc in Carolina. This is surely the coastal plain Alopecurus 
under discussion. Further confirmation of this is given by Steudel * 
who maintains Poiret’s species A. ramosus, cites the Bose specimen 
TIL Fi. ed. 2, i. 192 (1913). 
2 Walter, Thomas: Flora Caroliniana, 74 (1788). 
3 Ann. Rep. Missouri Bot. Gard. xvi. 40 (1905). 
4 Poir. in Lamarck: Encyclopedie Methodique Botanique, viii. 776 (1808), 
5 Steudel, E. G.: Synopsis Pl. Graminearum, i. 147-8 (1854). 
