lo Dec, 1908.] Toowooniba Canary Grass. 739 



lescens, and at one time it was thought possible that the plant might 

 prove to be a cross between Phalaris coerulescens and Phalans arundi- 

 nacea. Specimens were sent to Kew Gardens, and to Professor Hackel. 

 The director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, writes that the plant 

 received for identification is Phalaris bulbosa, L. (1755) (synonym, Phalaris 

 nodosa. I.. (1774). Phalaris commutata, Roem. and Schult, is, according 

 to Bertoloni, a composite species described from the base of a specimen 

 of Phalaris bulbosa, and an inflorescence of Phalaris minor. Phalaris 

 bulbosa is a well-known native of the Mediterranean region, but I can find 

 nowhere any account of its properties or usefulness as a fodder grass, 

 and in general the genus Phalaris appears to be of more value for its 

 seed (canary seed) than for fodder or grazing purposes. In any case it 

 is doubtful whether the grass would be a suitable one for rotation farm- 

 ing, so that trials in this direction should be conducted with caution. 

 Professor Hackel writes to say that he considers the plant to be a r.ew, un- 

 described species intermediate between Phalaris bulbosa L. and Phalaris 

 arundinacea. L. From the latter it is distinguished by the want of sub- 

 terranean scaly-leaved runners, by the wing on the keel of the sterile 

 glumes, W'hich is, at least 0.4 millimetres broad, (in Phalaris arundinacea 

 it is wanting or minute) and by the absence of the three sterile glumes, 

 which are present in Phalaris arundinacea. The same character dis- 

 tinguishes it from Phalaris bulbosa, which has also much broader wings 

 on the keel of the sterile glume and which has three to four bulbous 

 lowest internodes of the culm. The name of " Phalaris commuiala " was 

 given by Roem. and Schult, to a plant gathered near Genoa (Italy), and 

 described as having a bulbous culm and the wing of the keel of the sterile 

 glumes denticulate (like that of Phalaris coerulescens and minor). It is 

 possible that Phalaris commutata is a synonym of Phalaris coerulescens, 

 but Bertoloni savs that the specimen was combined of the vegetative parts 

 of Phalaris bulbosa and the inflorescence of Phalaris minor. IModern 

 Italian botanists have suppressed this doubtful name. 



Professor Hackel proposes to give the name of Phalaris stcnopiera, 

 to this grass, on account of the very narrow wing on the keel of the 

 sterile glumes. There is, therefore, a difference of opinion betw-een 

 two weighty authorities as to whether this grass can be referred to- an 

 existing species {Phalaris bulbosa) or is an entirely new one, but both 

 agiee in suppressing the name of '^ Phalaris commutata." If Pro- 

 fessor Hackel is correct and we are dealing with a new species, the ques- 

 tion arises as to its origin. Its free powers of seed production point 

 against a hybrid origin, and we have no guarantee that the seed 

 originallv imported was pure, or in fact, that the plant with which we 

 are dealing was actually derived from the imported seed at all. The 

 gap of four or five years between the apparent loss of the seed and the 

 reappearance of the plant on a rubbish-heap is a big one, and gives room 

 for manv possibilities. 



The convevance of a plant of mixed affinities from one country to 

 another by making its seed develop under varied conditi^ons of environ- 

 ment is especially likely to render it liable to sudden saltatory variations, 

 such as de Vries found capable of producing new^ species in Oenothera 

 (the evening primrose). Whether w'e are dealing here also, with a similar 

 case of the sudden evolution of a new species is diflficult to say and can 

 cnlv be determined bv the cultural experiments, which Professor Hackel 

 now has in progress. If the characters on which he relies remain constant 



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