1090 



most heaths about Southton. Profusely in the Poole basin, about 

 Bournemouth, and on all the heaths and moors about Christchurch, 

 Lymington, Beaulieu, and other parts of the New Forest and Christ- 

 church hundreds, near the coast, in vast quantity. On dry, gravelly, 

 heathy ground south of Anfield Church (part of Anfield Common ?), 

 June 26, 1850, the most northerly station in the county hitherto 

 known to me. 



This, the Rabbit or Deer's-foot grass of the Isle of Wight, is re- 

 markable for the bristle-like slenderness of its leaves, constituting 

 dense tufts of silvery gray, and forming a soft, highly elastic but slip- 

 pery turf, exceedingly pleasant to walk or recline upon from its dry- 

 ness, growing thickest and most cushion-like under the shelter of the 

 heath and furze. The panicle remains closed as well before as after 

 flowering, and indeed is but little expanded at any time, excepting in 

 favourable states of the weather and at certain hours of the day, col- 

 lapsing even then on being gathered. I do not believe A. setacea is 

 relished by sheep, if they touch it at all, as in many parts where this 

 grass forms the staple of the herbage, and sheep abound, its silvery 

 panicles wave uncropped by these animals, and the root-leaves are 

 not eaten down by them that 1 can perceive. It is a strange fact in 

 the history of this grass, that although so profusely abundant in the 

 south-western English counties, it was known, or at all events distin- 

 guished as a species, only in modern times, being probably confounded 

 with other kinds of Agrostis, since no mention or description of it oc- 

 curs in any author down to the time of Ray, who, one would think, 

 must have detected its characters had he seen it growing. Even Hud- 

 son, so late as 1798, thought it a variety of A. canina in his ' Flora 

 Anglica.' Curtis has the merit of first making it known to botanists, 

 and his figure in ' Flora Londinensis,' like all from his pencil, is ad- 

 mirable. Although so abundant in all the south-western counties and 

 in our own, the termination of this species to the north and east is 

 remarkably abrupt. In Sussex it has hitherto been detected in a sin- 

 gle locality only, and Bagshot Heath, in Surrey, is at once the most 

 boreal and inland station that stands on good authority. The York- 

 shire station is very apocryphal. 



Agrostis canina. In moist woods, meadows, pastures, and on 

 damp heaths ; common. 



Agrostis vulgaris. In rough, stony or sandy pastures, on heaths, 

 by road-sides, and in other dry places ; abundant everywhere. Often 

 very diminutive on arid heaths and wastes, where I suppose it is the 

 A. pumila of Lightfoot's ' Flora Scotica.' 



