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Notice of Leersia oryzoides in Hampshire. 

 By Wm. Arnold Bromfield, M.D., F.L.S., &c. 



Such readers of the ' Phytologist' as interest themselves in the geo- 

 graphical distribution of our native plants, will doubtless feel pleasure 

 in learning that the hitherto rare and local grass,* Leersia oryzoides, 

 extends its range into the western part of this county. On the 27th 

 of September, I detected it in very moderate quantity in the Boldre 

 River at Brockenhurst Bridge, in the New Forest, growing amongst 

 rushes, in company with Isnardia palustris, in two places ; in one of 

 which, immediately below the railing on the left side of the road 

 going from Brockenhurst to Lyndhurst, it must have been more than 

 once under my eye, as I had previously collected specimens of Is- 

 nardia within a foot of the Leersia itself, which it is probable would 

 again have been passed unnoticed by me, had I not a fortnight before 

 gathered the grass in its third Sussex station, in the Arun at Amber- 

 ley and Bury, four miles north of Arundel, and hence familiarized 

 myself with the aspect of the plant in the occult form in which it 

 usually presents itself to observation in this country. As I was at the 

 moment of finding it awaiting the down train to Ringwood, time did 

 not allow of an attempt to trace the Leersia higher or lower along the 

 stream, but on the 7th of October, returning to Lymington, I detected 

 it in somewhat greater quantity amongst reeds on the margin of the 

 same river, nearly under the timber railway-viaduct that crosses the 

 stream a short distance above Brockenhurst Mill, and about half a 

 mile below the first station at Brockenhurst Bridge. Continuing the 

 search, I found it in a broad ditch a little lower down than the mill, 

 just where the Boldre River enters by a weir the precincts of Wat- 

 comb and Brockenhurst Parks, growing in two or three scattered and 

 isolated tufts of moderate size, but still not abundantly. The barren 

 exserted portion of the panicle had in every instance fallen away en- 

 tirely, but the sheaths were inflated by the concealed part, bearing 

 plenty of ripe seed, and the specimens beneath the railway-viaduct 

 were the largest and tallest I have seen of English growth. I can 

 scarcely doubt that this most curious grass exists in the upper part 

 of the Boldre River, and probably in greater plenty, and that it will 

 be found in many of our Hampshire streams and pools between this 

 station and the original Sussex habitats. 



* It has lately been ascertained to abound in several and distant localities in Sus- 

 sex, since its first discovery in that county a few years back by Mr. Borrer. 



Vol. hi. 4 t 



