ON A NEW INDIAN OAK. 327 



NOTE ON STIPA MICRANTHA OF CAVANILLES. 

 By Baron Feed, von Mueller, C.M.G., M.D., F.R.S. 



In the eighth vohime of the ' Fragmenta Phytographiae 

 Austrahge,' p. 105 (1873), I ventured to re-estabhsh Cavanilles' 

 Stipa micrcmtha, referring to it as identical with Dichelachne sciurea 

 (J. Hook., Fl. Nov. Zel., i., 294), of which Sir Joseph Hooker has 

 fiu'nished an excellent illustration (from the masterly hand of 

 Mr. Fitch), in his 'Flora Tasmaniae,' t. 158. I left it doubtful 

 whether the Agrostis sciurea of R. Brown (Prodr. 171) belonged also 

 to Stipa micfantha, or perhaps to the very closely allied Stijya 

 Dichelachne. Bentham (Flora Austral., vii., 566) preferred to adhere 

 to the view, doubtfully expressed by R. Brown, that Cavanilles' 

 plant must be sought in a grass subsequently named Sti2ja verti- 

 cillata of Nees (in Spreng. Cur. Poster. 30), of w^hich S. ramosissima 

 is a synonym. 



In order that these discrepancies of opinion might be finally 

 settled, I asked Dr. Colmeu'o, the meritorious Director of the 

 Natural History Museum and Botanic Grarden of Madi'id, to send 

 me an origmal specimen of Cavanilles' plant, if such was there 

 still extant. With his usual urbanity and obliging kindness, he has 

 just sent me a panicle of the very specimen on which Cavanilles' 

 figure is founded, and this now proves indisputably that I had 

 rightly recognised the real Stipa micrantha in Agrostis sciurea, and 

 this indeed as far back as 1853 (First Gen. Report, p. 20). Whether 

 Dichelachne as a genus should be maintained or merge into Stijja 

 remains optional to individual opinion ; my own view being that 

 by the extreme multiplication of genera nothing is gained, the 

 memory unnecessarily over-taxed, and the ready view over collective 

 groups of plants largely lost. 



This is an apt opportunity to pomt out that in the ' Fragm. 

 Phytogr. Austr.', viu,, 282 (1874), I acknowledged, after a careful 

 comparative examination of numerous Cyjyeracea; and EestiacecB, the 

 inner glumes of GraminexE to be mere secondary bracts. 



ON A NEW INDIAN OAK; WITH REMARKS ON TWO 

 OTHER SPECIES. 



By H. F. Hance, Ph. D., F.L.S., &c. 



At the close of the summer of 1877, just before leaving 

 Calcutta for Penang, where he was prematurely cut off m the 

 prime of life, that indefatigable and conscientious botanist, the 

 late Mr. Sulpiz Kurz, sent me a few Indian oaks for examination. 

 The only novelty in the very small collection was a curious 

 species, ticketed in pencil, in Mr. Kurz's autograph, " Castanea 

 semicristata, Kurz." 



