352 
NOTE ON AIRA SETACEA, Hudson (A. ULIGINOSA, Weihe). 
Bv Henry Trimen, M.B., F.L.S. 
(Botanical Department, British Museum.) 
In the Banksian herbarium is a grass labelled by Sir Joseph Banks 
* Aira setacea, Cawston decoy, 12 miles north of Norwich—Mr. Briant, 
1776." It is the plant known by modern botanists as 4ira uliginosa, 
found in France, Germany, and Russia, and to which attention has 
lately been directed in this country by Baker, More, and Watson 
(vide * Journal of Botany,’ Vol. IV. 176; Vol. V. 72; Vol. VIL. 265, 
281). 
A. setacea was founded by Hudson (FI. Ang. ed. i. 30) on a plant 
collected by Mr. Stillingfleet on Stratton Heath, Norfolk, a locality a 
few miles distant from Mr. Briant’s, above quoted. A specimen from 
* Stratton Heath, 1780," is in the Smithian herbarium, on the sheet 
labelled “ 4. fleauosa, B, Fl. Brit.," but is too young for complete iden- 
tification. In the second edition (p. 35) Hudson refers the plant to 
Aira montana, L.; he repeats the Norfolk station, and adds that the 
plant is common on sandy heaths in Yorkshire and Lancashire. A 
detailed description is given, from which it is evident that the species 
intended is 4. uliginosa, of Weihe; the long acute membranous ligule, 
the smaller more erect and closer panicle, the equal glumes and stalk 
to the upper floret being all mentioned. It is thus also evident that 
the specimen in the Banksian herbarium is correctly named. 
A. montana of Linnzns, to which Hudson subsequently referred the 
plant, is in all probability a mountain form of 4. fleruosa, with darker 
glumes and a more contracted panicle. The short diagnoses in Fl. Lapp. 
49, Fl. Suec. 25, and Sp. Plant. ed. i. 65, are insufficient for certain 
determination, but the reference to Scheuchzer's * Agrostographia,' 216, 
and the habitat given, in dry sunny places, tend to show that the grass 
meant was not the one in question. Unfortunately the Linnean her- 
barium throws no light on the subject, the three specimens named A. 
montana being, according to Colonel Munro (Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot. 
vi. 42), all different, and all members of other genera than 4ira. In 
Scandinavia this alpine form appears to be very common, and Fries 
states that there exists a complete series of plants connecting 4. 
setacea (uliginosa) with it. The two plates (107, 108) in Parnell's 
* British Grasses’ represent such northern states of 4. flexuosa, some- 
