146 86. GRAMINA. 



Descends to the sea level. 



Ascends scai'cely above the sea level. 



Eange of mean annual temperature 52 — 51. 



Native. Sub-littoral, Glareal. Very local; but in 

 plenty where found, on the sandy beach between Penzance 

 and Marazion, in Cornwall, and in the like situation at 

 Studley Bay, in Dorset. Babington's Manual is my au- 

 thority for the existence of the Cynodon in Devon, with- 

 out further particulars. The province of the Thames is 

 indicated above, on account of the locality of Kew Green, 

 in Surrey ; in reference to which, it will afford an useful 

 lesson if we contrast two differently worded reports of 

 that locality ; one, calculated (though, perhaps, not inten- 

 tionally) to mislead and deceive the distant botanist ; the 

 other, having an opposite and truth-giving signification ; 

 that is, so far as a reader can judge of their merits, 

 without having seen the spot itself. The words of each 

 apipear true ; the deception lies in the supj)ression of cir- 

 cumstances which go to j)rove the station accidental. 

 Such indirect misreijresentations are highly injurious in 

 science, and ought to be discountenanced by editors as 

 well as by botanists : — 



1. " For the use of the youthful botanist resident in or 

 near the great metropolis, to whom inforijiation of the 

 whereabouts of any of the rarer sjiecies is a desideratum, 

 I would mention that of Cynodon Dactylon, which I have 

 seen in some abmidance in the month of August, on Kew 

 Green, Surrey. This, if I mistake not, is an unpublished 

 station for this beautiful little grass." — Walter Hill ; Kew, 

 December 14, 1843. (Phytol. i. 870). 



2. " I had an opportunity of examming the given 

 station personally last autumn, and found the plant con- 

 fined to about a square yard of ground, in the east corner 

 of the Green, where I have no doubt it springs from a 



