1063 



lensis the branches of the panicle are erect after flowering, the paleae 

 or glumes obtuse and awnless, and the sheaths of the leaves nearly 

 smooth : in F. arundinacea, the branches of the panicle are horizon- 

 tal or reflexed, the glumes acute and awned, and the sheaths and 

 leaves very rough. 



Mr. W. admitted Festuca loliacea and pratensis to be forms of one 

 species ; indeed he had shown this to the Edinburgh botanists, just 

 after they had printed their Catalogue, in which F. loliacea is kept as 

 a distinct species, while F. pratensis is united with F. elatior {Linn.) 

 But he was not yet prepared to combine all three, and F. arundinacea 

 likewise, under the one name of F. elatior, as is done by Mr. Babing- 

 ton. Mr. W.'s plant of F. arundinacea was originally brought to his 

 garden from the Isle of Wight, and is now a large sheaf, with hun- 

 dreds of flowering stems, five to seven feet high, and the root-leaves 

 half a yard long. 



A specimen of CEnanthe pirapinelloides {Linn.), to show the cylin- 

 drical form of the fruit, which exactly corresponds with that of the 

 Sardinian plant (admitted to be the true species), except in having 

 two callosities at the base. This was taken from a plant in Mr. W.'s 

 garden, the parent of which had been brought thither from a hedge- 

 bank in the Isle of Wight. Mr. W. recognized a second species in 

 Britain, often sent to him under the name of CE. peucedanifolia, and 

 readily distinguished by its turbinate or elli^jtic fruit, upon extremely 

 short pedicels, and more resembling Q^. globulosa than QC. pimpinel- 

 loides. The peculiar form of the root to some other specimens, re- 

 sembling that of a Dahlia in miniature, induces a supposition that 

 there may be a third species, although Mr. Watson has satisfied him- 

 self that the roots vary greatly with age and situation, and do not af- 

 ford such certain characters for distinction as may be found in the 

 fruit. The (^. Lachenalii (of Babington's Manual) is apparently the 

 species frequently sent under the name of QE. peucedanifolia, though 

 occasionally named QE. pimpinelloides by English botanists. Mr, 

 W. would illustrate this subject more fully on another occasion. 



Specimens of the garden fennel, to show the little importance to be 

 attached to the difference of the stems being fistulose or filled with 

 pith. These specimens were sections of stems arising from a single 

 root, of different dimensions, but of nearly equal age and stage of de- 

 velopment. Some of them (the thicker) were hollow, others filled with 

 pith. A question respecting a distinction of species, between the wild 

 and garden fennels, has been raised in consequence of one author de- 

 scribing the stems as fistulose, while another finds them solid ; but 



