736 



than the early ones. Neither wild nor garden plants have at this 

 present time other than simply folded leaves. Koch seems to have 

 noticed the variation of their folding, as he says " foliis novellis plu- 

 ries plicatis." 



I have hitherto seen this plant in one spot only through this neigh- 

 bourhood, and there by no means luxuriant, for it does not seem to 

 relish its position on the margin of a ditch polluted by sewage. 

 Other stations will probably be found by and bye, but this is evi- 

 dently much the rarest of all the forms in this district. 



j3. — A plant which has the short pales and anthers of G. plicata, 

 but combined with a more compound panicle, and the acute, green, 

 simply folded leaves of G. fluitans. I have attempted to characterize 

 it as follows. 



G. Panicle twice compound, nodding at the end ; 



branches mostly in fives, two compound, the rest bearing single 

 spikelets, patent in flower, divaricate with fruit ; spikelets of eight to 

 fourteen oval, oblong, closely imbricated florets ; outer pale twice as 

 long as broad, obtuse, with three nearly equal teeth, its summit reach- 

 ing half way up the next floret on the same side ; anthers about 

 thrice as long as broad ; leaves acute, simply folded ; ligule elongate. 

 Whole plant bright green, except the outer pales, which with fruit 

 are, as in a., tinged near the summit with purple. The leaves are un- 

 distinguishable from those of G. fluitans, — I have examined them at 

 all seasons of the year, and have never seen them other than simply 

 folded : the panicle has a fuller look than that of a., from the greater 

 number of compound branches ; in all the examples which I have 

 seen of that plant, one alternating branch only of each whorl is com- 

 pound, the rest bearing single spikelets, — while in this plant two 

 branches at least of each whorl are almost constantly compound ; and 

 thus, as they turn in opposite directions, the panicle of a. seems al- 

 ternately, and that of ft. oppositely branched : the spikelets are 

 more numerous than in the typical plant, but shorter, being composed 

 of fewer and more closely imbricated florets, the summit of each outer 

 pale reaching exactly half way instead of one-third up the next floret 

 on the same side ; in spikelets of thirteen florets taken from the pa- 

 nicle of each plant, that of a. exceeded that of /3. by the length of a 

 floret : the anthers are shaped like those of the typical plant, and 

 are either purple or pale yellow before bursting. These points though 

 constant, so far as I have been able to observe the plants of this dis- 

 trict, may not prove universally so : accordingly, I offer them only as 

 suggestions. This form is pretty generally distributed over a district 



