102 



BOTANICAL NOTES. 

 By L. Bodwat. 



(Bead November 25, 1895. J 



In a paper I had the honour of reading early this year, I 

 alluded to a grass from Adamson's Peak that appeared dis- 

 tinct from any described form. I am now convinced it is 

 an alpine variety of the scarce grass described by Brown as 

 Tetrarrhena juncea, and as such is of greater interest than if 

 it had been specifically distinct, all the more so to us as it 

 upholds the wisdom of our respected botanical head, Baron 

 von Mueller. Brown, guided by a similar train of thought to 

 that which directs more modern specialists, was a great genus 

 maker as well as species maker. There was rather a ten- 

 dency to make genera on artificial lines. Thus he removed 

 from the well marked genus Ehrharta, of Thumberg, sundry 

 forms that differ inossentially from that genus in bearing 4s 

 instead of 3 or 6 stamens in the flower. Of these those that 

 bore a loose inflorescence he placed in a genus as Microlana, 

 and those whose flowers were arranged in a spike or spike- 

 like raceme were formed into a genus Tetrarrhena. A long 

 time after this G-nnn found a grass undoubtedly new that 

 was close to Mieroloena; but having but 2 stamens, Hooker in 

 describing it thought it necessary to erect a new genus, 

 Diplax, for its reception. Mueller, following Sprengal, has 

 long ago returned these genera to Ehrharta. The grass I 

 found on Adamson's Peak is in all essential details a stunted 

 Tetrarrhena juncea of Brown, but it has a panicled inflor- 

 escence, and the androecium is reduced to a single stamen, 

 making it necessary to form a new genus for an apparent 

 variety, or to accept the teaching of von Mueller and return to 

 the single genus Ehrharta. 



Lepturus cylindricus, Trin. This littoral and marsh grass, 

 which is common to temperate Australia, Cape of Good 

 Hope, and the Mediterranean, is widely distributed in Tas- 

 mania, with its ally, L. incurvatus, Trin., from which it differs 

 in the spikelets possessing a single outer glume. It is doubt- 

 less indigenous. 



Cynodon dactylon, Pers., referred to in the appendix of 

 Spicer's Handbook as a recent introduction, has so long been 

 known in out-of-the-way localities that it is better considered 

 indigenous. Bentham so treats it as Australian in his Fiord, 

 Australiensis. 



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