218 NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
and, to a certain degree, in the shape of the spikelets. Besides that, 
in dried specimens there are numerous variations, which depend upon 
the season, the age of the plant, the state of the atmosphere, etc., when 
the specimen was gathered, or the way it was dried, all which disap- 
pear in the living plant; such are the flat or convolute leaves, the 
number and straightness or crispness of the hairs at the mouth of the 
vagina, the prominence of the tubercles from which they arise, the size 
and degree of laceration of the ligula, the breadth and colour of the 
spikelets, the texture of the glumes and valves and the degree of pro- 
minence of their nerves, etc., all of which it is now sought to introduce 
into specific diagnoses. The minute denticulations of the apex of the 
glumes and paleze and the length of the minute point or arista of the 
upper glume are variable in this, as in so many other Grasses, in one and 
the same spike. Of the specific unity of all these supposed varieties we 
have the testimony of all the great agrostologists who have had good 
materials to examine, of all Indian botanists who have seen the plant in 
its native stations, and above all of Robert Brown, whose decisions are 
those of an acute and powerful mind, founded in most instances upon 
the accurate observation of living plants, confirmed by a careful 
analysis of numerous and well selected dried specimens. Our own 
opinion is derived chiefly from the examination of the Hookerian and 
other herbaria at Kew; which contain between forty and fifty speci- 
mens of Zoysia pungens, collected at fourteen or fifteen different loca- 
 lities within the limits above assigned to it. 
From Dr. Carl Müller's paper it would appear (though not expressly 
so stated) that he possesses five specimens only, which he considers as 
. so many distinct species. One, from Griffith's Malacca* collection, he 
Es considers as the true Z. pungens, and so far he is right, as is shown 
_ by the corresponding specimens which we possess. He has then two 
Australian specimens, both given by Robert Brown as the true Z. 
pungens, but which Dr. Carl Müller distinguishes as species, under 
the name of Z. sedoides and Z. Brownii; but here, for the reasons 
above stated, Mr. Brown's authority will surely prevail, and our own 
. Australian specimens certainly belong to the true Z. pungens. The 
fourth is a supposed inland plant, being distributed with the label “ Se- 
rampore, Griffith,” and upon the phytogeographical principle, as well 
* In p. 267 of the above-mentioned paper it i 
this is a slip ef the pen, is So enn 
lainly- * das Gras von Serampore,” 
as plainly appears from the rest of the paper. 
