376 ON BROMUS ASPER. 



libus, brevibus (5-6 millim. longis) ; calyce sestivatione quincunciali, 

 millimetro cum dimidio longo ; corolla dextrorsuin convoluta, intus 

 pilosa, viridescente. Csetera ut in genere. Fructum non vidi. 

 This species may be of some pharmaceutical interest ; it is known 

 that the Pareira bark is referred to Vallesia punctata, Spr. (Rosenthal, 

 Syn. Plant. Diaphoricanim, 366), and in Brazil this species is called 

 " Pao pereiro, Uva assii, Camara de Bibro, Camara do mato, Pao 

 forquillia, Canudo amargoso " (Colmeiro, ' Onrso de Botanica,' ii. 

 478).* Pereira mentions Pareira bark (Mat. Med. iii. ed. ii. 2159) 

 as "belonging to Strychiiaceae, and before noticed;" but I have not 

 been able to discover where it is noticed. I have collected a consider- 

 able quantity of bark from our Caracas species, which I will forward 

 with some other indigenous remedies to the Museum of the Pharma- 

 ceutical Society of Great Biitain, where it may be studied and tried. 



ON BROMUS ASPER. 

 By Henry Trimen, M.B., F.L.S. 



Murray gave this name, in 1770 (Prod. Design. Gotting. p. 24), to 

 the plant described by Haller in 1768 from specimens collected in 

 Switzerland and at Gottingen (Hist. Helv. p. 286. n. 1503). The latter 

 cites for it B. ramosus, Huds., which name Hudson in 1762 (Fl. An- 

 glica, ed. 1. p. 40) had given to a Grass long known in England, and 

 well distinguished by Kay, Morison, and others. 



Linnaeus,! in his 'Mantissa,' i. p. 34 (1767), applied the same 

 name, B. ramosus, to an entirely different plant (now Brachypodium 

 ramosum, E. and S.) ; and, probably from a mistaken deference to the 

 great naturalist, Hudson, in the second edition of his Flora (1778), 

 abandoned his name B. ramosus, and called the British plant B. ne- 

 moralis (p. 51). Other botanists also gave it various appellations ; it is 

 the B. montanus of Pollich and Retzius, and the B. Jiirsutus of Curtis ; 



* The 'Curso de Botanica,' by D. Miguel Colmeiro (2 vols, in 3 parts, 

 Madrid, 1857), is an excellent work, which we recomiuend to all those taking 

 an interest in vernacular names of South-American plants. Its author is to- 

 day yaci7e^rz«ce/;s of botanists in the Iberian peninsula. 



t Linnseus appears to have entirely misunderstood the English plant. In 

 1771 (Mant. ii. 186) lie quotes Hudson's name under B. inermis, a very dif- 

 ferent grass ; yet he has labelled ' ramosus ' a specimen of asper in his herba- 

 rium, according to Col. Munro (Linn. Journal, vi. p. 47). 



