270 SHORT NOTES AND QUERIES. 



5. Note, in conclusion, that there nre only twenty-three species fonnd 

 in all tlie four masses, and that six of these are very rare in the Oolite, 

 leaving- only seventeen montane plants which may be considered as dis- 

 persed up to a standard of moderate frequency through the four ranges. 



SHORT NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Bromus asper, L., Beneken. — I am very glad to have been able lo 

 s°.e this in the living state. An examination of the plant noticed by 

 Mr. Warren in Kensington Gardens (see p. 238) shows all the characters 

 pointed out by Beneken in his paper (Bot. Zeitung, 1845, 725), as dis- 

 tinguishing it from his i?. serotinus, which is the usual English '■^ asper" 

 — or rather, if we are to use the oldest name, B. ramosits, lluds., as I have 

 shown in Journ. Bot. VIII. 376. The aspect of the Kensington Gardens 

 plant when growing is more distinct than the characters would have led 

 one to expect ; the slender nodding panicle and small hoary spikelets 

 scarcely at tirst suggest B. ramosus {futper) at all. There are always more 

 than two branches in the lowest semi-verticil of the panicle, and these 

 are shorter than in the ordinary plant, and not divaricate at a right angle 

 with the main axis, but ascending, forming an acute angle with it ; tiie 

 upper part of the panicle is drawn out and very pendulous, with several 

 short-stalked single spikelets arranged on it. The spikelets themselves 

 are not more than an inch long, containing from 5 to 8 Howcrs. The 

 glumes are much less unequal than in the usual plant. Good characters 

 are presented by the upper glume, which has its lateral ribs strongly 

 hairy, and by the lower pales, which are uniformly hairy (to which the 

 grey appearance of the spikelet is due), and not longer than their awns. 

 The anthers are orange. The leaves, especially the lower ones, are con- 

 siderably more hairy, and somewhat narrower than in usual B. raniosiis, 

 Huds , whilst the sheath of the uppermost leaf is almost glabioiis. 

 Though some of these characters are occasionally found in the common 

 plant, the coexistence of all is sufficiently characteristic. Besides these 

 points, the plant certainly flowers earlier than its commoner ally, the 

 Kensington Gardens specimens, which grow in damp shady ground, were 

 past flowering on August 4th (and the process of drying has since broken 

 up the spikelets into separate flowers), whilst B. serotinus, of which I 

 saw plenty on the next day in the sunny hedgerows of Hillingdon, was 

 just in flower. The plant would be worth cultivation, with a view of 

 testing the permanency of these characters. As for the locality, it seems 

 most likely that the grass has been introduced into ihe Gardens, perhaps 

 from abroad : Apera Spica-venti grows in the same enclosure. However 

 that may be, it is one of the n)Ost interesting plants in Mr. Warren's 

 remarkable list, to which, by the way, I can add Impatiens parcijlora and 

 Bromus sterilis, the former in Hyde Park, the latter in Kensington 

 Gardens. — Henry Trimen. 



Spffolk Plants. — I gathered several rare and interesting plants last 

 month in the neighbourhood of Mildenhall and C'avenham, and there are 

 two of them to which I wish now specially to call attention. The one is 

 a ciliated form of PoJjjijala depressa, which I gathered on a grassy bank 



