336 Dr. Sstirn’s Account of several Plants, 
Mr. Don has indicated the following: differences, which I find to 
hold good. The roots form a compact tuft, and are not at all 
inclined to creep. The leaves are never clothed with soft hairs, 
nor are their edges even, as in. pubescens, but they are finely ser- 
rated, so that the two species are distinguishable, even in the 
dark, by the touch. Fn this last particular the leaves agree with 
pratensis, but differ from that in their rough and greatly elongated 
sheaths. The flowers differ from both those species, not only in 
their much greater size, but in their partial stalk, or rachis, the 
hairiness of which I observe to be crowded up into a very dense 
tuft, towards the base of each floret, not dispersed over the whole 
rachis. 
This species bears the same relationship to Avena pubescens, 
that my A. caryophyllea, Fl. Grec. t. 89, does to pratensis, being 
larger, with a greater number of florets in each calyx. I wish 
however that the caryophyllea might prove as permanently di- 
stinct; upon which subject I shall take this opportunity of 
making some observations. That was one of the few Greek 
grasses, drawn by Mr. Ferdinand Bauer, of which I could find 
no specimens in Dr. Sibthorp’s herbarium. I was therefore 
obliged to take their specific characters from the drawings; 
and I did so with confidence, having had such frequent expe- 
rience of the fidelity of this excellent artist. The rachis of this 
Avena being delineated quite smooth, and that part having been 
resorted to by Linnzus in this genus for his specific differences, 
I seized upon it, in conjunction with the greater number of florets, 
to establish a specific character. But I have lately discovered 
specimens of this grass, along with most, if not all, of the others 
of the Flora Greca that were in the same predicament, quite out 
of their places, confounded amongst a heap of rubbish, which I 
had supposed not to belong to the soe Baronum at all. "Thus 
ao then 
