1062 



discussion of this intricate subject at present. I shall therefore con- 

 tent myself with copying from my MS. descriptions of Hampshire 

 plants that of C. Boenninghauseniana, drawn up June 16, 1843, from 

 a large bundle of fresh specimens gathered in the locality above men- 

 tioned. 



C. Boenninghauseniana, Kunze, Suppl. der Kiedgr. p. 86, t. 22 ; 

 Fl. Dan. xiv. t. 2300 (good representations both of our Vectian plant) ; 

 E. B. Suppl. iv. t. 2910 (spikelets much darker than with us, and on 

 the whole less characteristic than the two figures just quoted). 



Plant growing in large tufts. Root creeping, cespitose and fibrous. 

 Culms numerous, erect or inclining, spreading or radiating from the 

 centre of the tuft, from one to two and a half, three, or even four feet 

 in length, rigid, slender and striated, but stouter, firmer and much 

 more acutely angular than in C. remota (to which, as to C. axillaris, 

 this plant betrays a strong affinity), and especially so at and near the 

 summit, below the inflorescence,* where the angles are very sharp and 

 scabrous, and to a much greater distance downward than in that; in 

 the middle and lower part quite smooth, the faces rather convex ; 

 leafless for a considerable distance from the top. Leaves linear, bright 

 pale green, the superior ones narrow, as long or longer than the culms, 

 more usually shorter, about one to one and a half line in breadth, 

 flattish, or at least much less channelled or concave than in C. remota, 

 very acutely pointed and tapering, with triangular, scabrous points ; 

 rough along the edges and keel for about half their length downwards ; 

 those towards the base of the culm very greatly shorter than the su- 

 perior leaf, the lowest of ail shorter even than their sheathing bases. 

 Spike terminal, simple, much shorter for the size of the plant than in 

 C. remota, from one and a half to three, four or more inches in length; 

 rachis straight, with three very unequal faces, one of them much 

 broader than the other two (hence appearing at first sight two-edgedf), 

 the angles very acute and rough, with cartilaginous serratures. Spike- 

 lets sessile, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acute, the two lowermost con- 

 siderably distant from each other, but less so than in C. remota,J the 



* In C. remota the culm is quite smooth or very slightly rough only to the lower- 

 most hract, the rachis only of the spike being scabrous, as is truly remarked by Good- 

 enough. 



+ One of the angles is often smooth, and so obtuse and indistinct as very nearly to 

 render the rachis ancipital. 



\ The comparison is here all along made with C. remota, and not with C. axillaris, 

 under the impression that the latter was the plant before me whilst drawingup the 

 description. 



