Botanical Society of London. 375 



tween S. Geum and S. umbrosa, " as many of the varieties present 

 characters leaning either more or less to the one species or the 

 other." 



S. elegans is deemed by Mr. Andrews to be simply a variety of 

 8. umbrosa. And after careful examination of the forms of S. hyp- 

 noides, he is now " satisfied that S. affinis, incurvifolia, hirta and pal- 

 metto, are all mere varieties, or indeed barely deserving the name of 

 varieties." 



Read " A Synoptical View of the British Fruticose Rubi, arranged 

 in groups, with explanatory remarks " (part 3), by Edwin Lees, Esq., 

 F.L.S. The paper was accompanied by drawings and specimens. 



July 5. — Dr. Francis Bossey in the Chair. 



Specimens of the following plants were exhibited, sent to the So- 

 ciety by Mr. Hewett Watson : — 



Car ex elongata (Linn.), found abundantly in Weybridge marshes. 

 This locality is interesting to the metropolitan botanist, the nearest 

 habitat previously on record being in the county of Salop. 



A pubescent-flowered variety of Bromus commutatus (Schvsid.), found 

 plentifully along w r ith the more abundant glabrous form in a meadow 

 by the river Mole, between Esher and West Moulsey, Surrey. This 

 variety affords another instance to prove the little importance which 

 can be given to the character of smooth or downy flowers as a spe- 

 cific distinction in this genus. It will form an addition to the ' Lon- 

 don Catalogue of British Plants' (C. pubens), to be entered under 

 " Bromus (1355) commutatus." 



A specimen of Lolium multiflorum, the root of which was dug up 

 when in flower in a sown field last year, and the plant is now co- 

 piously flowering in Mr. Watson's garden ; thus proving its perennial 

 existence, although the alleged annual root of L. multiflorum has 

 been considered the best distinction between this supposed species 

 and L. perenne. The other alleged differences are equally invalid. 



Garden specimens of Festuca pratensis (Huds.) and F. arundinacea 

 (Schreb.), to show the strongly marked differences between them ; 

 the latter being three times the size, extremely harsh to the touch, 

 and very dissimilar in its flowers and mode of inflorescence. In F. 

 pratensis the branches of the panicle are erect after flowering, the 

 palese or glumes obtuse and awnless, and the sheaths of the leaves 

 nearly smooth ; in F. arundinacea the branches of the panicle are ho- 

 rizontal or reflexed, the glumes acute and awned, and the sheaths 

 and leaves very rough. 



Mr. Watson admitted Festuca loliacea and pratensis to be forms of 

 one species ; indeed he had shown this to the Edinburgh botanists 

 just after they had printed their Catalogue, in which F. loliacea is 

 kept as a distinct species, while F. pratensis is united with F. elatior 

 (Linn.). But he was not yet prepared to combine all three and F. 

 arundinacea likewise under the one name of F. elatior, as is done by 

 Mr. Babington. Mr. Watson's plant of F. arundinacea was originally 

 brought to his garden from the Isle of Wight, and is now a large 

 sheaf with hundreds of flowering stems, five to seven feet high, and 

 the root-leaves half a yard long. 



