ft 



1083 



which is barely near enough the former to make it possible that Lobel's 

 and my own station are the same, setting aside the difficulty about the 

 distance, which is not so easily got over. I suspect, therefore, that 

 there is, or was, some other place called Drayton, much nearer to 

 Portsmouth, and that Lobel's station is one of many Portsea-Island 

 localities for Polypogon monspeliensis mentioned to me by Mr. Ja- 

 cob. Var. a. major, Kunth. Panicle lobed; culm repent at the base; 

 setae very long. P. polysetus, Steud. Near Porchester, Dr. Mac 

 reight (in his Man. of Brit. Bot.) ; probably the same station as tha 

 given above. Var. /3. minor. Panicle short, densely spiked ; cu 

 rarely repent at base; setae short. Salt-works near Portsmouth, Id. ; 

 probably one of Mr. Jacob's stations before alluded to on Portsea 

 Island. I find no other difference but in size between these two va- 

 rieties, the larger growing in the wetter, the smaller in the drier places; 

 the former rising to the height of four feet, with culms like reeds for 

 thickness, and perfectly erect, except at base, bearing a panicle from 

 four to five and a half inches in length ; the latter forming tufts, with 

 numerous culms, from a foot or less to about eighteen inches long, de- 

 cumbent below, and spreading or partly erect ; panicle much smaller, 

 two to three inches long. I have never seen English specimens from 

 other counties at all approaching the gigantic size of the Hampshire 

 plants at Porchester and Farlington, but Mr. H. C. Watson has re- 

 ceived examples as large from the Azores.* About Montpellier, from 

 whence the species has its specific name, it is very common in arid, 

 sandy places, and I have also collected it in the loose sand on Sulli- 

 van's Island, opposite Charleston, S. C, in June, 1847, where it has 

 become naturalized, but in both places much smaller than with us. 

 It is a singular fact, that the same plant which in the south of France 

 is an inhabitant of the driest sands, should in England be found only 

 in muddy salt marshes, a situation I do not recollect to have seen it 

 in at Montpellier, nor have I heard of any instance in which this spe- 

 cies has been noticed on sand in this country. Here P. monspelien- 

 sis is truly a noble grass, with its broad leaves and exquisitely soft, 

 silky, compact, spear-shaped panicle, emulating many of its order na- 

 tive to the torrid zone. Few of the figures given by British authors 

 do justice to this elegant species; that of E. B. is very bad; that of 

 Knapp equally so, if not worse ; Parnell's much better, but not first 

 rate; Mr. Curtis's in Brit. Entom. xvi. t. 767, nearly all that can 



* The great size of the Hampshire plant did not escape the observation of Lobel 

 in the ' Adversaria' before quoted. 



