CHARACTERS OF BRITISH PLANTS. 81 
by botanists to immature specimens of B. commutatus; also 
that the name Bromus velutinus is in turn given to a form 
of B.mollis, in which the peduncles are short and the panicle 
consequently very close. In reference to these plants I can- 
not help expressing a hope that English botanists will 
discountenance the change of a generic name so long and 
almost universally adopted as that of Bromus. Why should 
it be exchanged into that of Serrafalcus ? 
Lolium multiflorum (Lam.)—The ** Italian Rye-grass" is is 
now much sown by farmers in preference to the native L. 
perenne; and the fact of its coming so true from imported 
seeds, in this country, shows it to be a persistent variety. I 
do not call it a species, because there appears to be no certain 
character for distinction. Our native L. perenne acquires 
awns in some places, though not commonly found in that 
condition. Where it grows in rich ground, with free space 
for roots and leaves, the spikelets of L. perenne bearas many : 
flowers as do those of the L. multiflorum. On the other side, 
L. multiflorum is certainly perennial, and produces “ barren 
shoots," that is, leafy shoots, which do not become flower- 
ing stems till the succeeding year. And on removing a plant 
from a field of the * Italian Rye-grass,” after it had flowered 
there, and confining it to a small flower-pot, later flowering 
stems were produced, which bore spikelets of four to six 
almost awnless flowers. 
Spartina stricta (Roth) and S. alterniflora (Loisel.)—These 
appear very different, yet there is a slight shading off in 
the characters assigned for distinction in the few dried 
specimens which only I have seen. I have a specimen of 
S. alterniflora, in which the leaves are considerably short of 
the top of the spikes ; and in a specimen of the same species, 
for which I am indebted to Dr. Bromfield, the outer glume is 
not quite glabrous, though the hairs on it are few and short. 
So far, there is an approximation to the characters of S. 
stricta in these two specimens. 
