1077 



by succeeding writers. But on turning to Merrett I perceive that he 

 does not say the, but a rivulet, which leaves it very doubtful whether 

 I searched in the right place after all, and gives ground for hope that 

 this grass may yet be found in the neighbourhood. 



Setaria viridis will, I feel confident, be detected hereafter in our 

 sandy districts, with perhaps S. verticillata and glauca for its associ- 

 ates. The great rarity of the genera and species composing this tribe 

 of Gramina (Panicege) is a remarkable feature in the English flora, 

 seeing that most of them are amongst the commonest weeds of culti- 

 vated ground on the continent, under the parallels of the south and 

 centre of England. Surrey seems to be the head-quarters of all the 

 British panic-grasses, possessing more than perhaps any other county 

 in its warm, dry, inland and easterly position, the climatic conditions 

 in which this tribe of grass so eminently delights. Hence the spe- 

 cies composing it fail totally in the west of England, in Wales, Scot- 

 land and Ireland, and I think are rarely found with us close to the 

 sea. In an economical point of view, their absence from our fields is 

 not to be regretted, as in most parts of the world, where the summers 

 are very warm and dry, such harsh, worthless annuals as the various 

 species of Panicum, Setaria, Cynodon, Digitaria, Paspalum, Cenchrus, 

 &c, are miserable substitutes for the perennial, succulent meadow 

 grasses of our own land, whose place they in a great measure usurp. 



What may be the plant of Merrett (Pin. p. 56) intituled " Gramen 

 Paniceum procumbens, seu chamse paniceum palustre. In a lane, 

 and watery places, and ditches near Petersfield" ? Can it be Leersia 

 oryzoides, a grass likely enough to grow there, and the culms of which 

 are sometimes procumbent, or rather decumbent, when on damp 

 ground and not immersed in the water, but the term "chamae" seems 

 to point at some species of smaller stature than that usually is. 



Phalaris arundinacea. By the sides of rivers, ponds, pools and 

 ditches ; not unfrequent in the Isle of Wight, and extremely common 

 and abundant in most parts of mainland Hants. In various parts of 

 Sandown Level. By the Medina at Shide Bridge, Newport, abun- 

 dantly. In the pond below Carisbrooke Castle, and abundant gene- 

 rally by mill streams and ponds at Newport and Carisbrooke. In the 

 stream between Newbridge and Mill Green, near Shalfleet. Willow 

 thicket between Messley Farm and Langbridge. By the stream-side 

 at Yarbridge, and by the bridge at Alverston and elsewhere. So com- 

 mon on the mainland, and universally distributed, that I have not 

 been at the trouble of marking localities. 



P. canadensis (Canary grass) is occasionally found, a few plants 



