SrARTINA TOWNSENDII 245 



whole organ. I have examined them in their earliest beginnings 

 and there is nothing resembling a poUinodium. The fungi them- 

 selves are degenerate plants descended from some chlorophyllous 

 parentage, and my belief is that lichens and ascomycetes descend 

 from some common ancestor, but have diverged just as man and 

 the ape have diverged in different directions from a common 

 earlier type." 



The Kendal Museum, of which Martindale was honorary 

 curator, owes a great deal to his loving care of the herbarium, 

 much of his valuable time having been spent in the preservation 

 and arrangement of the fine collection there of the flowering and 

 flowerless plants of the county. 



E. M. Holmes. 



SPAETINA TOWNSENDII Groves. 



[The fifth volume of the Proceedings of the Bournemouth 

 Natural Science Society contains a paper by Dr. Stapf on the 

 above-named plant, originally delivered by him before the Society 

 as a lecture in 1913. Dr. Stapf's previous paper on this interesting 

 grass was reprinted in this Journal for 1908, pp. 76-81 : the 

 present contains much additional matter of interest as to the 

 origin of the plant, some of which we here reproduce. The paper 

 is illustrated by figures of S. alterniflora, S. stricta, and S. Toion- 

 senclii. — Ed. Jouen. Bot.] 



Yabious theories have been advanced to explain the first 

 appearance of the grass in the English Flora. The most plausible 

 would seem to be that it was due to accidental introduction from 

 a foreign country ; but our present knowledge of the genus and 

 its distribution does not support it. Another suggestion is that 

 Townsend's grass arose as a sport or mutation from SjMrtina 

 stricta, which formerly used to grow on the shores of Southampton 

 Water. Spartina stricta is, however, a singularly uniform and 

 conservative species throughout its area, rather receding than 

 advancing, and slow in adapting itself to changed conditions. It 

 is evidently not the material from which one might expect sports 

 or mutations to spring, so distinct and vigorous as Townsend's 

 grass. 



There is, however, a third theory which is more plausible. 

 According to it, Townsend's Spartina arose from a cross between 

 >S'. alterniflora and S. stricta. S. stricta does not at present 

 occur in the neighbourhood of Southampton or in Southampton 

 Water ; but we know for certain that it did so not very long ago. 

 S. alterniflora is common in the Itchen Eiver and also found in 

 various places at the head and on both sides of Southampton 

 Water. There was, no doubt, sufficient opportunity for the two 

 species to hybridize. Unfortunately, it has not been possible so 

 far to produce artificial hybrids of S. alterniflora and >S'. stricta. 

 The evidence in favour of this theory is, therefore, necessarily 

 circumstantial. It rests partly on the structure and the general 

 behaviour of the grass, and partly on the occurrence of a natural 



