102 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



teristic kindness at once replied that after careful study he 

 could not identify it with any described plant, and that he 

 considered it to be a new species of Triticum of unknown 

 habitat, but almost certainly of oriental origin. 



In both the places, though five miles apart, where this 

 plant occurred, the conditions are somewhat similar : one 

 place is a derelict poultry farm where grain-refuse from dis- 

 tilleries is thrown, yielding a luxuriant crop of hundreds of 

 foreign plants ; the other is a stretch of uneven waste 

 ground, whose hollows are being filled up with sweepings 

 from the holds of grain -ships and with other refuse. In 

 both these places the plant was growing in association with 

 Triticiim crassum, Aitchis. and Hemsley, a native of Central 

 Asia ; Phleum grcecum, Boiss. and Heldr. ; Phlenm aspernm, 

 Jacq. ; Apera intermedia, Hackel, whose only known habitat is 

 Asia Minor ; and the three well-known species of ^Egilops. 



The following diagnosis by Professor Hackel is pub- 

 lished in Scotland at his request, as he desired it to appear 

 in connection with the observations of Mr. James M' Andrew 

 and myself on alien plants here : 



" Triticum (sub. -gen. ^Egilops] peregrinum, Hackel, 

 nov. spec. Annuum. Culmi graciles, circ. 35 cm. alti, apice 

 longe nudi, glaberrimi. Vaginae ventricosae, ore plus minus 

 fimbriatae, ceterum glaberrimae. Ligula brevissima, truncata. 

 Laminae anguste lineares (6-8 cm. longae, 2-7 mm. latae), 

 acutae, utrinque pilis mollibus patentibus plus minus con- 

 spersae. Spica brevis (3-6 cm. lg., 6-8 mm. diam.) sursum 

 attenuata, e spiculis fertilibus 4-5 constans, adjectis in basi 

 spiculis sterilibus 3 parvis v. minutis, rhacheos articuli sub- 

 curvati sursum modice dilatati dorso complanati, ventre 

 concavi, plus minus scabri, spicula adjacente plus minusve 

 breviores. Spiculas fertiles ovato-oblongas (circ. 12 mm. lg., 

 4 mm. It), 4-florae, floribus 2 inferioribus fertilibus, superi- 

 oribus sterilibus, decrescentibus, viridulae. Glumae -steriles 

 subaequales, |-^ spiculae aequantes, obovato-oblongae, circ. 

 7 mm. lg., sinuato-bidentatae, dentibus triangularibus acutis 

 v. acutiusculis in spicula terminali interdum (altero v. ambis) 

 in aristam brevem latiusculam productis, inter dentes inter- 

 dum denticulum minutum exhibentes, dorso elevato 7-nervis, 



