2r» TRIAND. DIGYN. 



long. Liphlf. p. 93 {A. alia, el slolonifera F) ; E. B. ^. 1 189 

 ( /I. alba); and i. 1532 {A. stt^ovif.). Schrad.^ Germ. p. 209. 



/3. Leaves glaucous, panicle more compact, cal. glumes more 

 rough on the back. Agj\ glai/cescens, D. Don. MSS.inedit. 



Hab. Hills and road-sides^ common. /3. Isle of May, D. Don. Fl. 



July. H. 

 Plant stouter than the last and generally larger, fw/vns ascending, 

 oten rooting at the base, and throwing out runners. Panicle rather 

 contracted, pale green or purjilish, branchlets patent. Cal. glumes 

 as in A. vulgaris, as are those of the cor. but the outer valves have 

 5 nerves and as many teeth, and the inner one is only faintly 2- or 

 3-nerved at the base, nearly entire and obtuse at the extremity. 

 In some individuals, but I know not if they are found in Scotland, 

 there is a short awn at the base of the outer valve of the cor. ; this 

 is the Agr. compressa Willd. : and sometimes the flowers are vivi- 

 parous, which is the .-1. sijlcatica Linn. It is even difficult to distin- 

 guish this plant from the last ,- and I have never seen any British 

 awnless Agrostides that may not be reduced to one or other of these 

 two. I feel strongly persuaded that the Agr. stolonifcra and alha 

 of E. B. are one and the same species, the former host agreeing 

 with what I call alba, in the oblong ligule, but not according in 

 the extremely dense erect flowers ; whilst, on the other hand, the 

 flowers of the latter plant of Smith are too few and lax, and the 

 ligule is short and truncate like those of A. vulgaris. N^'hat may be 

 the Linnsean A. stolonifcra can only be determined by a reference 

 to the Linn. Herb. The accurate Schrader, I know not upon what 

 authority, says that that is the Jgr. certicillata of Villars and Willd., 

 remarkable for its hispid calyx and panicles. The famous Fiorin 

 grass of Dr. Hichardson and the Irish agriculturists, is what I here 

 call alba, as I have determined by the aid of specimens gathered 

 in company with the late Dr. Richardson himself. Schrader has, 

 I think with great propriety, reduced the awnless Agrostides to the 

 two here adopted ; (iaudin makes 5 of them in his Agrost. llelvet. ; 

 yet says of them "adeo variabiles sunt, ut, me q\iidem judice, na- 

 tura inter eas vix certos constanterque limites statuerint ; " and 

 Host, I lament to say, has, besides A. vulgaris, 5 species of this 

 family, which appear to me to offer no decided mark of distinction ^. 



* I incUule this synonym of a foreign author because the description there 

 referred to is the only satisfactory one I am acquainted with of what / intend 

 by A. alba. 



" ^ Since the above wa.-s written, and when on the point of going to the 

 press, I have received a letter from my friend, J. E. Bicheno, Esq. of New- 

 bury, Berks, on the subject of these two Agrostides; and as his opinion, the 

 result of actual observation, tallies so well with my own, it would be doinp 

 him an injustice were I not here to insert it. " I find the greatest puzzle," 

 he says, " in the variations of Agrostis vitlgari.:- and alba. The extremes of 

 each I know well by the divergent, smooth liranches in the panicle of the 

 former, and the altogether less nerved and smooth flower. The panicle 

 branches of A. alba and the calyx are hispid, and the nerves of the outer 

 valves of each marked distinctly. This also throws out great numbers of 



