ON BROMUS ASPER. 377 



Solauder named it B. serotinus in 1773, and, though this name was 

 never published,* it was current for a time in England, and all the 

 older specimens in the Banksian Herbarium are so named. 



In 1798, Sir J. E. Smith redescribed all the British Bromi (Trans. 

 Linn. Soc. iv. 293), and adopted the name B. asper, L., for the pre- 

 sent species from the ' Supplementum Plantarum ' (1781) of the 

 younger LinuEeus, entirely ignoring previous writers, and simply re- 

 marking that " Linnaeus, by accident, called another B. ramosus.'' ' 

 But such deference to a great man cannot be allowed to override the 

 rules of priority in nomenclature, which require the adoption of Hud- 

 son's first name, Bromiis ramosus. 



The principal synonymy, then, is as follows : — 



Bromus ramosus, Huds. Fl. Ang. ed. 1. p. 40 (1762) ; Linn. Syst. 

 Veg. cura Murray, ed. 13. p. 102 (1774), non Linn. Mant. i. p. 34 

 (1769). 



B. asper, Murray, Prod. Fl. Gott. p. 24 (1770) ; Linn. fil. Supp. 

 p. Ill (1781) ; Linn. Syst. Veg. cura Murray, ed. 14. p. 119 (1784). 



B. serotinus, Solander, ms. in Herb. Mus. Brit. (" 1773 "). 



B. montanus, Pollich, Palat. i. p. 116 (1776) ; Retz, Obs. ii. p. 7 

 (1781). 



B. Jiirsutus, Curt. Fl. Loud. ii. p. 8 (1777). 



B. nemoralis, Huds. Fl. Ang. ed. 2. p. 51 (1778). 



Two distinguishable forms appear to be included under this species ; 

 and attention was first called to this fact, by Beneken describing, 

 ixnder the name of B. serotinus, in the 'Botanische Zeitung ' for 1845, 

 p. 724, what he considered a new species, found near Naumburg. It 

 is singular that he should have bestowed on it a name which had pre- 

 viously been in use in this country for the same plant. Beneken 

 distinguishes his species from what he thinks ordinary ^. ««/;e/', Murr., 

 by its later period (two or three weeks) of flowering, by its less hairy 

 leaves, all the upper sheaths of which have rough hairs, by the branches 

 of the lowest semiverticils being never more than two and divaricate, 

 and by its glabrous glumes. " B. asper" of the usual form has a larger 

 though more slender panicle, with from three to six approximated 

 branches at the lowest whorl, one or more of the branches always 



* Retzius states, in 1781 (Obs. 2. p. 7), tliat Dryander sent liim a specimen 

 oi Bromus montanus under the name B. serotinus. 



