1858.] • PLANTiE DOMESTICiE. 519 



Distinction between Melica uniflora and M. nutans. 

 By A. Jerdon. 



Having lately found Melica nutans in this neighbourhood, 

 where" it is a rare Grass, I observed the following difference be- 

 tween the two species, which have a considerable general resem- 

 blance to each other : — 



The glumes of M. uniflora are as long as, or even longer than, 

 the glumellas ; while those of M. nutans are a good deal shorter, 

 and only about half the length of the glumellas. This difference 

 does not appear to have been noticed by authors. The glumes 

 in both species have the same brownish-purple colour. 



The barren floret in both species is clavate, or rather, turbi- 

 nate-clavate, and hyaline, and is found, when dissected, to consist 

 of the rudiments of several (generally three) undeveloped florets j 

 but in M. uniflora the pedicel which supports it is considerably 

 longer than in M. nutans. 



Mosshuriiford, Jedburgh, N.B. 



PLANTiE DOMESTICiE. 

 Domesticated Plants, if the term be admissible. 



It is an assumed fact that certain animals are incapable of 

 existing but under the protection of man. It is perhaps an ad- 

 mitted fact, but it may be treated here as an assumption. As a 

 corollary to this admission, or assumption, it follows that the 

 wild cattle of England, the wild horses and beeves of America, 

 are escapes from domestication. Reasoning analogically, it may 

 be assumed, or perhaps admitted, that cultivated plants are occa- 

 sionally, nay often, found as escapes from cultivation. Few or 

 any of them are capable of subsisting without the care and pro- 

 tection of the cultivator. 



It is a very general but not a universal opinion, that all culti- 

 vated plants existed originally in a natural state. This is not 

 the general opinion of zoologists in reference to the origin of 

 domestic animals. It is generally admitted that the powerful 

 and more ferocious animals would, after a time, destroy the 

 gentler herbivorous races. In the vegetable kingdom an analo- 



