ON ANTHOXANTHUM PXTELTI. 8 



lower glnme almost wholly membranous ovate one-nerved about half 

 the length of the outer, upper with membranous margins and apex 

 oval-acuminate three-nerved convolute embracing the flowers; barren 

 florets sessile equalling about half the longer glume ; each of one 

 navicular obovate-cuneate pale, terminating in two membranous glab- 

 rous lobes villous with dark hairs below the lobes : lower pale slightly 

 the longest five-nerved awned at the back below the notch with a short 

 straight awn which usually extends slightly beyond the glumes, upper 

 pale four-nerved awned near the base with an awn extending one- 

 third of the longer glume beyond the latter kneed elegantly striate 

 and twisted in its lower half, loles of the barren Jiorets erose and acutely 

 lacerate-deniate with two or three teeth, outer margin of the lodes re- 

 gularly rounded inner mirgin straight ; fertile flower from one third to 

 one half the length of the barren ones, pales glabrous shining, lower 

 five- to seven-nerved nearly circular, upper lanceolate obtuse one-third 

 shorter many times narrower, both closely investing the small oblong 

 caryopsis. — Flah. Cultivated in sandy fields. June, July. 



The annual character, branching of the stems, smaller size, lesser 

 height, shorter and narrower anthers, and much weaker scent readily 

 distinguish this plant from A. odoratum. 



Our plant is here figured for the first time. The plate, which has 

 reached me since the present paper was written, well represents the 

 species in its early stage ; in its after growth the branching becomes 

 much more apparent. In the magnified representations the flattening 

 out of the barren pales and consequent tearing of the membrane has 

 caused them to appear constricted in the middle ; the form of their 

 summits as given in 7a, is very typical. 



I may mention here that in Godron's account of this species in the 

 ''Flore de France," torn, iii., p. 443, which on the whole is good, he 

 has followed the mistake of the original describers in giving the inferior 

 barren flower as bearing the longer awn and the superior the shorter 

 one ; also that Hooker's '' British Flora," (Ed. v., 1842) tab. viii., gives 

 a figure of the flower of A. odoratum, L., slightly magnified, in which 

 the barren florets are drawn as ending in three teeth, and in Ed. vi., 

 1850, this eiTor is still more evident, and the pales are wrongly repre- 

 sented as hairy to their tips. 



A. aristatum, Boiss. i^A. Carrenianuni, Pari.), is nearly allied to 

 A.Puelii, from which it may be distinguished by its generally stouter 

 habit, thicker unbranched stems, broader leaves, ovate or ovate-oblong 

 compact and densely flowered spikes ultimately becoming yellowish, 

 and by its villous and longer awned glumes, which also have the 

 appearance of being longer and narrower, though I do not really find 

 them. so. It is known that among specimens gathered at Madrid by 

 M. Boissier, and distributed by him as A. aristatum, there were 

 some of A. Puelii intermingled with true A. aristatum ; which mis- 

 take has been the cause of these cwo species being confounded by 

 some botanists. I noticed the mistake myself when lately looking 

 over specimens from M. Boissier, in the Herbarium at the Jardin 

 des Plantes, in Paris. 



A. aristatum, Lloyd (non Boiss.), "Flore de I'Ouest," p. 505, is 

 A. Puelii, Lee. et Lam , of which Lloyd gives a var. ^ nanum only 

 distinguishing it by its smaller size, " 2-4 cent." This var. M. God- 



B 2 



