on TRITICUM PUNGENS. 361 
I refer these —— to pyenanthum of Grenier & Godron, on Dr. 
Syme’s authority. 
Var. d. distichum.—Glumes lanceolate- a more than half the 
length of the pailsieta and rather less than two-thirds. Keels faintly 
scarious near theirapex. Pales in bablabt tru aes apiculate (apiculus 
rather longer than in var. ¢.). Spikelets linear-elliptical, narrower than 
in the other vars., less compressed, 6-7 flowered, sao tt uch more nume- 
rous, 21-—-25 to each spike, curving markedly outwards _ the slightly 
curved rachis in a rather remarkable distichous arrangement. Spike 
curving (not rigid) and much longer than the previous vars. or’ Ns e 
- inches long as compared with var. ¢, 2} to 3 inches.) Upperm 
sheath higher than in var. ¢., but lower than in @ and b. Leaves sie 
thin = not so markedly involute as the two first vars 
Near the pee pe Gate, Portslade. A remarkable 
plant, cow bith may prove dis 
hese four varieties, a. stiedlash , b. mucronatum, c. pycnan nthum, 
d. distichum, are arranged accordingly “8 ae relations to the species 
T. acutum. The var. distichum, as the est allied, is place last ; 
b 
found to shade off into each other. There is found to exist a curious 
and close parallelism of variety in Zritieum repens, T. pungens, and 
T. ae —parallelism which Lolium and Brackypodium also give indi- 
cations of a L. junceum alone in Agropyrum hardly ever 
varies. Ba nera of Rosa and Rubus are full of such curious para'lel 
n fet oyonds to English Botany (vol. xi., p. 180), it will be seen 
that while was caer y pyenanthum of Grenier and Godron is re- 
Austriacorum (vol. iv., t. 3) falvis on the same plate and under one 
me i 
d othe 8 
uticis.’” Now Meichenbach "Ue. Flo. Germ. et Helv. (Ed. Sec.) 
vol. i., tab. cxxi., fig. 263), only reproduces that part of Host’s 
plate and description which refers to ar awned plant; relegating 
in a note the obtuse-glumed plant T. repens as a variety. 
Dr. Syme (E.. B., vol. -xi., — p. 160} follows Reichenbach in - 
this narrowing of Host’s Triticum littorale. But it is evident that 
blished a i 
wards distinguished 7. acutum, thus making littorale the super-species 
to our set of littoral couch-grasses excepting junceum—than narrow its 
original scope into a mere varietal label in this group, in which last 
category it does not scem here advisable to use it ? 
