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ALOPECURUS HYBRIDUS IN BRITAIN. 

 By a. Bkuce Jackson. 



In the autumn of 1899 my friend Mr. Henry Bromwich showed 

 me an Alopecurus which he gathered in wet spots on the banks of the 

 Avon at Kenilworth, and which exhibited several marked features of 

 interest. While partaking of the characters of A. genicidatus and 

 A. pratensis, it could not be satisfactorily referred to either species, 

 and indeed seemed to be exactly intermediate between them. In 

 this Journal for 1899, p. 358, Mr. Arthur Bennett, in a note on 

 Mr. Mitten's Alnpccariis pronus (now expunged from our list as a 

 monstrosity), mentioned another plant, the A. hyhridus Wimmer 

 [A. pratensi-r/eniciilatU!i Wichura), described in Garcke's Flora vun 

 Nord- und Mittel Deiitschkaid (ed. vi. p. 438), and alluded to by 

 Syme in EiKjlish Botani/, vol. xi. p. 26, who possessed specimens 

 from Bremen collected by Dr. Focke. The publication of this 

 note led me to devote special attention to the Warwickshire 

 novelty, specimens of which liad been furnished me by the 

 discoverer. Suspecting that it might be Wimmer's plant, I 

 subsequently forwarded an example to Prof. Hackel, who wrote : 

 ** Your grass is certainly the Alopecurus hi/bridus Wimmer (A. pra- 

 tensis X (jeniculatus Wichura). Whether it is a hybrid or not I am 

 unable to decide, but there is reason to suppose that it is of hybrid 

 origin." 



On July 15th last, accompanied by Mr. Bromwich, I visited the 

 Warwickshire locality, a low-lying meadow bordering the River 

 Avon at Chesford Bridge, Kenilworth. The meadow had been 

 mown prior to our visit, but we were fortunate enough to find the 

 Alopecurus in considerable abundance on the moist margin of the 

 field, where it was associated with coarse herbage which had escaped 

 the scythe. The plant soon attracts attention by reason of its 

 straggling growth and general luxuriance. The upper leaf-sheaths 

 are remarkably glaucous, and in this respect the plant recalls 

 A.fulvus, but in structure it differs entirely from that species. It 

 resembles A. (jeniculatiis in habit, but the flowering spikes are 

 usually much longer and stouter than in that plant. 



The following is a translation of Wimmer's original description 

 of A. hyhridus in his Flora von Schlesien, ed. 3, p. 31 (1857) : — 



** Alopecurus hybridus, n. sp. A. nigricans Wichura im 

 Jahresber. d. Schles. Geseilsch. 1846, p. 61. Culm ascending, 

 geniculate, glabrous ; ligule lengthened ; glumes hairy on the 

 back, almost shaggy, ciliated, rather blunt, obliquely truncate ; 

 awns oblique or slightly geniculate. Found only once, in 1845, 

 by Wichura, at the edge of a pool near Reichenbach, in company 

 with A. pratensis and A. geuiculatus. Habit and size similar to the 

 preceding [A. pratensis] , but in the construction of the flowers 

 nearer to A. geuiculatus. The glumes of a dull purple at the point, 

 almost one-third larger iho^n A. geuiculatus : awn about the same 

 length. Wichura considered this a hybrid of A. geuiculatus and 



