2 ON ANTHOX.VyTHUM PUELII. 



The locality on wliicli thcso hitter specime^is were gathered, en 

 sandy soil in a rahhit warren, is such as to raise no doubt that the 

 species is indigenous in Cheshire,* and thus presumptive evidence is 

 given that the Hampshire specimens are also indi<;enoLis, so that it is 

 not unlikely the plant is to some extent distributed in the S., S.W., 

 and W. ot Great Britain. It is suggested that botanists should exa- 

 mine their British herbaria to see if A.Puelii may not lurk there, and 

 the range ol" the species in Great Britain be thereby at once ex- 

 tended. 



In general appearance A. Puelii is smaller, more delicate and 

 slender than A. odoratum ; the spikelets also are smaller and laxer, the 

 stems shorter, branched from the base, and generally bent at tlio 

 lower nodes. The awns are much more exsert, the longer one ex- 

 tending beyond the larger glume by about one-third the length of the 

 latter. The lobes of the barren pales are irregularly erose bi- or tri- 

 dentate, the outer margin of the lobes regularly rounded but the inner 

 mar'nn strai^-ht. In A. odoratum both the outer and inner margin 

 of tlie lobes are regularly rounded. The barren flowers exceed the 

 fertile flower by about one-third or one-half their length. The inner 

 pale of the fertile flower is invariably shorter than the outer one by 

 about one-half or one-third the latter. This inner pale in A. odoratum 

 frequently, if not generally, slightly exceeds the outer. These details 

 of the barren and fertile flowers of A. odoratum are well expressed in 

 lleichenbach's " Deutschlands Flora," pi. clxxxii., 496, C.B.D. 



Villars with his usual accuracy seems to have been the first bota- 

 nist -who was well acquainted with what is now called A. Puelii, as 

 in his "Histoire des Plantes de Dauphine," torn, ii., p. 57 (1787) he 

 writes under ^. odoratum : — " Ohserv. I have seen a variety or possibly 

 a diff'erent species in the sandy fields and cultivated ground of Mie plain 

 of Bievre, and in other places on cold soil. It is without scent, and has 

 several stems from the same root, which seems to be annual, the 

 spikes are greener and smaller." The earliest herbarium specimens 

 are probably those from Teneriff'e in the British Museum, collected, 

 as Dr. Trimen informs rac, by Masson, in 1778. 



But I now go on to give a further and fuller description of 

 AntH'iX^nthtjm Puelii, Lee. et Lam. 



Annua . Hoot fibrous Stems numerous erect slender twelve inches 

 or less in height, ultimately branching from and usually bent at all the 

 nodes except the uppermost one. Leaves narrow linear acute short flat 

 glabrous or slightly hairy and ciliate especially at the insertion of the 

 ligule bright green slightly keeled ; ligiile oblong lacerate. Sheaths 

 striate smooth. Panicle spike-like ovate-oblong acute lax. Florets 

 shortly stalked, glumes unequal glabrous minutely scal)rou3 cuspidate, 



• This reasonin;^ rested on the supposition that the habitat given me for the 

 plant — "h ral)>iit warren" — was uncultivated ground; but information has 

 since reached me that the plant grew on a " sandy bank whero rabbits resort," 

 jtnd th it the fioid, including the bank, was broken up and relaid in grass with 

 bought set-d about five years ago. 1l would be premaiure, in so early a stage of 

 enquiry, to fi)rm atiy definite opinion as to whether the plant should or should 

 not be considered a native of Britain. The Ben Avon locality should be 

 searched again ; the plant may be discovered in new localities, for it may 

 hitherto have been taken for, and passed by as, a peculiar growth of A. 

 odoratum not worth recording. 



