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BRIEFER ARTICLES. 
NOTES ON NORTH AMERICAN GRASSES. _III. 
AGROSTIS STOLONIFERA L. 
In view of the recent tendencies to base species so far as possible upon 
type specimens, or in the absence of such specimens upon a definite idea 
to be interpreted from references to the older authors, it becomes necessary 
to investigate carefully the bases upon which are founded the Linnaean 
binomials. Two species of Agrostis are here considered. 
A. stolonifera was described in the first edition of Linnaeus’s Species 
Plantarum as follows (p. 62, under the second division, MUTICAE): 
stolonifera. 7. Agrostis paniculae ramulis divaricatis muticis, culmo repente, 
calycibus aequalibus. 
Agrostis culmo repente foliis radicalibus breviore, folii suprema 
vagina ventricosa, flosculis muticis. Roy. ludgb. 59. Fl. 
suec. 62 (61). 
Agrostis culmo repente vagina supremi folii ventricosa. Roy. 
ludgb. 59. Dalib. paris. 23. 
Gramen caninum supinum minus. Scheuch. gram. 128. Habi- 
tat in Europa. 4 
There are three factors which enter into the determination of the type 
of a species: the specimen or specimens from which the description was 
drawn, the synonyms and citations given in the original description, and the 
description itself. Establishing types for Linnaean species is complicated 
from the fact that the descriptions may be not original with Linnaeus. 
His work has been that of an editor who has taken material at hand and 
rearranged it in accordance with his system of binomial nomenclature. 
Frequently he merely attached a trivial or specific name to species already 
well known under a polynomial designation. The older authors were not 
accustomed to give citations of definite specimens or definite localities. 
Let us examine in detail the data for determining the type of Agrostis 
Stolonifera. 
1. The specimens.—In the Linnaean herbarium (in the rooms of the 
Linnaean Society of London) there is only one specimen labeled with this 
name. This is from “‘ Attica” and is marked in the handwriting of Linnaeus 
himself. This specimen is what has been going under the name of A. ver- 
139 [1904 
