LINN/EUS' " FLORA ANGLICA " l6l 



plants to which they refer, the weakest of all methods of 

 diagnosis.^ What would be said of anyone attempting 

 to identify Shaw's Barbary Plants by picking out such 

 synonyms as one could from Morrison and other authors, 

 without seeing the plants on which they were based ? 

 Therefore, why should the effort be made to bring into the 

 arena of botanical citation such a trivial pamphlet as the 

 "Flora Anglica, " a proceeding which one may be sure its 

 renowned author would have been the first to deplore ? 



A New Species of Pyrenochsta. By Malcolm 

 Wilson, D.Sc, F.L.S. 



This plant was discovered by Mr. Wm. Nowell in consider- 

 able quantity during the summer of 191 1 on dead Holly 

 leaves on Wimbledon Common, near London. In size it 

 exceeds most of the species of Pyrenochaeta, the diameter of 

 the perithecium being about i mm. when the setai are 

 included. Numerous brown septate hyphae pass from the 

 base of the perithecium and penetrate the tissues of the host 

 in all directions. 



Pyrenochalta Ilicis, n. sp. — Peritheciis amphigenis, 

 sparsis, ovoideis vel subglobosis, •3-'5 mm. diam. innato-erum- 

 pentibus, subcarbonaceis, atris, setis multis, nigris, rigidis, 

 continuis, 200-400 fx superne vestitis ; ostiolo prominulo, 

 rotundo ; basidiis filiformibus, alterne ramulosis, ramulis 

 brevibus ; sporulis cylindricis, utrinque obtusis, continuis, 

 hyalinis, d-"] — 1-2 p.. 



' This can be illustrated by his treatment of the Poas. On p. 409 of the 

 "Synopsis" Dillenius has No. 2, " Gramen pratense paniculatum vieduan, 

 ' Synopsis,' ii. 257 and C. B. P. The greater or middlesort of Meadow Grass. 

 In pascuis et ad sepes." Of which he adds, " Differt etiam a sequente ; quod 

 panicula non usque adeo sparsa seu diffusa sit, quodque caules summi et folia 

 laevia sint, cum in ille aspera nonnihil sentiantur," which as Dillenius' specimen 

 shows is Poa pratensis L., yet because the " Synopsis " cites Bauhin's name (which 

 in the " Sp. PI." Linnaeus uses for P. trivialis), so in the " Flora Anglica" 

 Linnci?us seizes upon Bauhin's name, and, overlooking Dillenius' note, wrongly 

 identifies the plant of the "Synopsis" as Poa trivialis instead of P. pratensis, 

 with the result of naming the next species No. 3 (which also contains Bauhin's 

 name as cited in " Sp. PI. " for P. pratensis) as P. p>-atensts instead of, as it should 

 be, P. trivialis, which Dillenius calls " The greatest Meadow Grass " and localises 

 "In pascuis. Culmi pedales aut sesquipedales, non nihil asperi, seu in omnem 

 partem extensa. " 



