1091 



Agrostis alba. In moist woods, meadows, ditches, damp corn-fields, 

 grassy pools, and other wet places ; common. Covers all the damp 

 ledges of the cliffs to the north of Shanklin Chine, in great quantity 

 and very large. 



Apera Spica-venti (Agrost. Spic). In dry, sandy, chiefly culti- 

 vated fields, and on banks adjacent; probably not rare on the eastern 

 border of the county ; not remarked in other parts of it, nor in the 

 Isle of Wight. In vast profusion in the sandy fields at Cove, near 

 Farnborough, where it is a troublesome weed amongst the crops of 

 every description, wheat, barley, oats, beans and potatoes, also grow- 

 ing on the sandy borders of the fields, July 14, 1850. Common in 

 corn-fields at Aldershot, two miles from Farnham, chiefly amongst 

 wheat, August 2, 1850. I venture to predict that this most beautiful 

 grass, which was sent to me in August, 1849, from the Farnborough sta- 

 tion, as a Hampshire native, by Mr. H. C. Watson, will be found in 

 many parts of the sandy tract between Petersfield and Farnborough, 

 since it abounds in some of the adjacent parts of Surrey. Possibly, 

 too, A. interrupta, lately discovered at Thetford, in Norfolk, may be 

 found within our limits, a plant I am not acquainted with, and by 

 some held to be a mere variety of A. Spica-venti. Few of our native 

 grasses come up to the present in elegance, as seen waving its large, 

 silky panicle in the breeze amidst the standing corn, rising to a height 

 of two or three feet. 



Obs. — At Aldershot, Campanula Rapunculus grows in very consider- 

 able plenty on hedge-banks and borders of fields, as intimated to me by 

 Mr. W. Reeves last year, thus confirming it as a plant of the county. 

 The Petersfield station mentioned in a former part of this catalogue, 

 on the authority of Goodyer, I have great reason to believe was an 

 error of the old botanist, and that C. patula was the species intended 

 by him, as I find the latter in abundance in a sandy field on the north 

 side of Petersfield Heath, but no traces of C. Rapunculus exist there 

 at present. 



Obs. — I am strongly impressed with the idea that Stipa pennata 

 will eventually be confirmed to the British flora, by its discovery in the 

 south-east of England. This remarkable grass is generally spread over 

 southern and central Europe, being enumerated in the floras of Ger- 

 many, Belgium and the north of France (Paris, Rouen, &c). Dr. 

 Salter tells me that, when a student at Guy's Hospital, he once saw 

 numerous specimens of Stipa pennata, brought in by a person em- 

 ployed there, who had gathered them wild, as he affirmed, in the 

 neighbourhood of Dorking ; the person is since dead, and Dr. S. has 



