212 SHORT N0TB8. 



ns it may appear, is, I believe, absolutely constant and invariable in 

 each ppecies. From S. sibin'ca the inner M!onf3;olian Grass is perfectly 

 distinct by its inflorescence, smaller flowers, and other notes. I sub- 

 join a diagnosis. 



Stipa inebrians, sp. nov. — Rhizomate . , . ., cnlmis erectis cum 

 vaginis nodisquc loevibus, foliis linearibus acuminatis involutis scabria 

 8 poll, et ultra longis 2-3 lin. latis, ligula lineali truncata, paniculaa 

 linearis coarctata3 angustae 5-7 poll, longoe pallide viridis lucidfe radiia 

 2-3 ina^qnalibus 1-2 poll, longis adpressis a basi v. paulo supra ramosis 

 et floriferis, pedicellis 1-2 lin. longis, glumis subfequalibus lanceolatis 

 apice lacero-dentatis hyalinis nervis 3 viridibus abbreviatis, glnraellis 

 adpresse albo-villosis involutis superiore lineari herbacea paulo bre- 

 viore uninervi inferiore lanceolata subcoriacea 1^ lin. longa trinervi 

 fructifcra atrofusca ex apice intogro dense barbato aristam articulatam 

 sed persistentem scabrara sub anthesi rectiusculam postea distincte 

 tortam et geniculatam 5 lin. longam exserente, antheris linearibus 

 breviter barbatis. 



Hab. in montibus Ala shan, Mongolian interioris. (Herb, propr. 

 n. 19204.) 



I have already quoted Prof. Grisebaoh's opinion as to the slender 

 grounds on which his Ptilagrostis is kept apart from Stipa. IMy own 

 specimens of PL mongolica, gathered at the river Birjussa in Eastern 

 Siberia by Dr. v. Stubendorff", have a very distinctly twisted awn, 

 which, however, appears to be quite unarticulated. But the recently 

 discovered Pt. alpina is evidently technically inseparable from Lmi- 

 aqrostis, whilst the Mongolian plant I have just described, though very 

 different in liabit from L. calamagrostis, Lk., L. capensis, N. ab E., and 

 L. splendens, Kth., with each of which I have compared it, yet, by the 

 somewhat less than usually coriaceous lower glumella and the awn 

 almost straight and untwisted of its opening florets (though both these 

 organs attain a little later the normal cliaracters of Stipa), seems ap- 

 parently very close to L. caragana, Trin. & E,upr., of which unfortu- 

 nately I possess no specimen. Indeed, were it not for the " folia 

 perangusta," the lax patulous panicle, smaller flowers, caducous awn. 

 and some other characters of less importance ascribed to that pLint. I 

 should have been disposed to consider them identical. I certainly be- 

 lieve that there are no sufficient grounds for separating generically 

 Stipa and Lasiagrostis ; and I should include in the same genus 

 MacrocJdoa and Aristella. 



SHORT NOTES. 

 Diatoms and Wheat-Sxraw. — Prof. P. B. Wilson, in a short paper 

 in Silliman's " American Journal " for May, states the following. 

 Some land sown in Wheathaving been manured with the infusorial earth 

 found in large quantity on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay, 

 the straw, after being treated with nitric acid and the siliceous remains 

 examined under the microscope, was found to consist " wholly of the 

 siliceous shields of Diatomaceaj, the same as found in the infusorial 

 earth, excepting that the larger disks in their perfect form were absent 

 (^Actinocyclus E/irenbergii and Actinoptgclnis undulattis)." . . . "In 



