ON THE EUROPEAN SPECIES OF FESTUCA. 305 



has observed the following in connection with its geographical 

 distribution. All forms of a higher grade, at least all species and 

 subspecies, have a defined and limited area of distribution, be it 

 large or small ; and, if interrupted, yet the distant stations are to a 

 certain extent connected. This is evident, if we accept the fact 

 that the widely differing forms had somewhere their birthplace 

 from which they wandered, or spread themselves over a narrow or 

 over a more extended area. Now if the existence of one such 

 form consists in the alliance of several distinct characters, then in 

 order that the same form or species shall become developed and 

 appear in some other station on the globe, such species must again, 

 out of the thousand possible surrounding combinations, bring about 

 those which constituted the supposed species. Such an occurrence 

 is most unlikely. Much more likely is it that, from the same 

 parent form, the supposed species may became developed in several 

 stations, if it differ from the parent form only in one or possibly in 

 a second correlative distinctive character. Thus it comes about 

 that subvarieties, and in part also varieties, can develop themselves 

 independently in several different localities where the parent form 

 exists. 



Hybrids between two species of Festuca have not as yet been 

 noticed, but Prof. Hackel thinks that in all probability F. 

 Schlickumii, Grantz., is F. elatior x gir/antea. He considers 

 F. loUacea, Curt., Huds., to be undoubtedly a hybrid between 

 Festuca elatior and Loliiun peren7ie ; and jP. Brinkmanni, A. Br., he 

 describes as a hybrid between F. gigantea and Lolium j^erenne. He 

 only knows of one instance of hybridity between two subspecies, 

 viz., between F. ovina var. vagijiata and var. pseudovina, the first 

 being a var. of subs^D. euovina, the second a var. of subsp. sulcata. 



C. — Geographical Distribution. 



The genus Festuca has its principal development in the higher 

 regions of the Alps, Carpathians, and Southern Peninsula. In the 

 Alps there are fourteen species, but only one is endemic — F. laxa. 

 In the Pyrenees there are but seven species, and not one of 

 these is endemic ; nevertheless there is a profusion of subspecies 

 and varieties. The Spanish Peninsula is the home of the genus : 

 here there are seventeen species, eight of which are endemic — 

 F. Hystrix, Clementei, plicata, ampla, Henriquezii, elegans, Pseudo- 

 eskia, granatetisis. Two of the seventeen species, F. scaberrima and 

 triflora, are not found in any other part of Europe, but they also 

 inhabit Northern Afiica ; one, F. ccErulescens, is found also in 

 Northern Africa and Sicily ; one, F. montana, is found also in 

 Northern Africa, Sicily, the southern half of the Appenine 

 Peninsula, throughout the whole of the Balkan Peninsula, on the 

 borders of the Eastern Alps and the Carpathians, and in Southern 

 Asia. Throughout nearly the whole of Russia and Germany, as 

 far as the Alps and North and AVest France, the Netherlands, 

 Great Britain, and Scandinavia, there are but five species — F. 

 ovina, rubra, elatior, gigantea, and sglvatica. 



There are three polymorphous species, and these — as would 



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