Dr. Suautu's Obfervations on the Britif Species of Bromus. 287 
Precedente toto habitu gracilior. Radix annua, Culmus feré tripe- 
dalis, glabriufculus. o/s utrinque pilofa, margine param fcabra. 
Vagine pilis plerumque deflexis hirfute. Panicula rara, diffufa 
(nec coar€tata), fimplex, pedunculis femiverticillatis, fcabris, elon- 
.gatis, indivifis, vix unquam bifloris. Spicu/e- pracedentis, at 
glaberrime, vix feptemflore, nitidz, viridi alboque vittatz, nervis 
minus prominentibus, ariftis fcabris longitudine valvularum. 
Linnezus defcribed this fpecies from an Englith fpecimen, lefs 
luxuriant than ufual, and therefore more ftriétly racemofe. The 
name however may be retained in allufion to the fimple ftruture of 
the panicle. Even in the very luxuriant f{pecimen, fent by Tilli to 
Sherard, the foot-ftalks are moftly fimple and fingle-flowered, by 
which, and the conftant fmoothnefs of its glumes, it may bertsinly 
be diftinguifhed from B. mollis, 
We have under this grafs an inftance of Dillenius’s having inferted, 
as a new fpecies, into his edition of the Synopfs, what exifted there 
well defined already, for his is not even a variety: of Ray’s plant. 
Dr. Withering, by an error totally unaccountable to me, quotes 
Mr. Afzelius as faying that “ the B./ecalinus, hordeaceus and racemofus 
are the /ame ¢/ant in the Linnzan herbarium, and that they are all 
varieties of B, mollis.” ‘This excellent Botanift muft have {poken 
from recollection, and his memory deceived him, as-any. one may- 
eafily be convinced by looking at the fpecimens. Nor is this the. 
only error of the fame kind, which,, without. my. participation or 
knowledge, has glided into. the work. of my intelligent. and liberal 
friend, to whom I fhould have been happy at all. times to have di-. 
reétly, communicated all the information that might be confiftent 
with my own undertakings, which I know to be all he would ever 
defire, 
5 5. Bromus 
