132 



TRIANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Agrostis. 





Var. 1. minor. Very diminutive, from 2 to 3 inches high: 

 stiffer, and more glaucous than the foregoing. Peculiar to the 

 sea coast. Mr. Griffith. 



/ 



mari'tima. A. Panicle large, rather spreading; branches, longer ones 



naked, shorter ones crowded with florets at the base : 

 calyx inner valve smooth, outer serrulated, upwards. 



Bod. 55S-Ger.em. 23. 1. 



Straw creeping, striking out fibrous roots from the joints, 

 then ascending; 8 or 10 inches high, smooth. Leaves and sheaths 

 rough. Panicle 2 to 4 inches long, branches 1 to J of an inch. 

 Cat. outer valve serrulated on the upper half, inner valve smooth. 

 Bloss. inner valve one half the length, and one third the breadth 

 of the outer. It may possibly prove only a variety of the stolo- 

 Ttifera, but until evidence be given of that, the roughness of the, 

 leaves, the different structure of the panicle, and the smaller size 

 and greater plumpness of the florets are sufficient grounds of 



distinction. 



[Specimens from Dr. Pultenev, gathered in the sand on our 

 southern sea coasts.] P. June, July. 



vulga'ris. 



A. Panicle spreading, branches bare at the base : florets 



numerous : calyx inner valve smooth, outer serru- 

 lated upwards : blossom inner valve but half the size 

 of the outer ; deciduous. 



Gram. pasc.-FI. dan. \63-Mus. rust. iv. 2. IQ-S tilling JI. 3- 

 Leers 4. 3. 



Straw sheaths and lower leaves smooth ; upper leaves rough* 

 Sheath •scale half egg-shaped, all the leaves very slender. Panicle 

 fine glossy purple, 3 to 6 inches long : branches 1 to 2 inches, 

 very slender and delicate; pretty much expanded. Florets very 

 small, numerous. Calyx valves equal, acute; outer serrulated on 

 the upper half, inner smooth. Bloss. inner valve narrower and 

 but half the length of the outer. 



This plant has been very generally supposed to be the Agr* 

 capillaris of Linn, an error which originated with Linnjeus him- 

 self, who first distinguished and characterized his capillaris in the 

 Fl.lappon, and in the 1st edit, of Sp. PI. but afterwards con- 

 founded it with the plant now in question. We are indebted to 



that society, it appears that the crop principally consisted of the Agrostis 

 stolonifcra. Such also was the opinion of Mr. Stonhouse, who seems 

 first to have noticed it in Howe's Pbytologia, p. ji referring to Gerard* 

 26. r. The attention which Mr. Swayne has since given to this subject 

 makes it probable that this grass is only found in the second crop, and 

 that the first principally consists of the Toa trivialis palustris. See vol. I • 

 1 1 . of the Memoirs '/Bath Agr. Sac. 



