2fi TRIAND. DIGTN. 



long. Light f. p. 93 (A. alia, et stolonifera ?) ; E. B. 1. 1 189 

 (/A alba) ; and *. 1532 (A. stolomf.). Schrad* Germ. p. 209. 



/3. Leaves glaucous, panicle more compact, cal. glumes more 

 rough on the back. Agr. glaucescens, D. Don. MSS.ihedit. 



II uj. Mills and road-sides., common. 8. Isle of May, D. Don. Fl. 

 July. Tl. 



Plant stouter than th.3 last and generally larger. Culms ascending, 

 o'ten rooting at the base, and throwing out runners. Panicle rather 

 contracted, pale green or purplish, branchlets patent. Cal. glumes 

 as in A. vulgar is, as are those of the cor. but the outer valves have 

 5 nerves and a.s many teeth, and the inner one is only faintly 2- or 

 3-nerved at the base, nearly entire and obtuse at the extremity. 

 In some individuals, but I know not if they are found in Scotland., 

 there is a short awn at the base of the outer valve of the cor'. ; this 

 is the Agr. compressa Willd. : and sometimes the flowers are vivi- 

 parous, which is the A. sylvatica Linn. It is even difficult to distin- 

 guish this plant from the last , and I have never seen any British 

 awnless Agrostules that may not be reduced to one or other of these 

 two. I feel strongly persuaded that the Agr. stolonifera and alba 

 of E. B. are one and the same species, the former best agreeing 

 with what I call alba, in the oblong ligule, but not according in 

 the extremely dense erect flowers j whilst, on the other hand, the 

 flowers of the latter plant of Smith are too few and lax, and the 

 liguie is short and truncate like those of A. rulgaris. What may be 

 the Linnsean A. stolonifera can only be determined by a reference 

 to the Linn. Herb. The accurate Schrader, I know not upon what 

 authority, says that that is the Agr. vertidllata of Villars and Willd., 

 remarkable for its hispid calyx and panicles. The famous Fiorin 

 grass of Dr. Hichardson and the Irish agriculturists, is what I here 

 call alba, as I have determined by the aid of specimens gathered 

 in company with the late Dr. Richardson himself. Schrader has, 

 I think with great propriety, reduced the awnless Agrostides to the 

 two here adopted $ Gaudin makes 5 of them in his Agros't. Helve I. ; 

 yet says of them ' ' adeo variabiles sunt, ut, me quidem judice, na- 

 tura inter eas vix certos constanterque limites statuerint ; " and 

 Host, I lament to say, has, besides A.vulgaris, 5 species of this 

 family, which appear to me to offer no decided mark of distinction b . 



* I include this synonym of a foreign author because the description there 

 referred to is the only satisfactory one I am acquainted with of what / intend 

 by A. alba. 



b Since the above was written, and when on the point of going to the 

 press, I have received a letter from my friend, J. E. Bicheno, Esq. of Ne\v- 

 bury, Berks, on the subject of these two Agrostides; and as his opinion, the 

 result of actual observation, tallies so well with my own, it would be doing 

 him an injustice were I not here to insert it. " 1 tind the greatest puzzle," 

 he says, " in the variations of Agrostis vulgarif; and alba. The extremes of 

 each I know well by the divergent, smooth branches in the panicle of the 

 former, and the altogether less nerved and smooth flower. The panicle 

 branches of A. alba and the calyx are hispid, and the nerves of the outer 

 valves of each marked distinctly. This 'also throws out great numbers of 



