334 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
Is it possible to decide which of the two British segregates is the 
type of the Melica nutans of easeseter! I think that it is. 
his 
view is apparently taken, with almost if not quite absolute 
unanimity, by the older systematists, including, in my opinion, 
even Hudson (loc. cvt. 
the gE of “ Melica spc Linn. ’ The first line (see Fl. Lapp. 
no ited species has spikelets which hang 
res ar ae nee : the common species 
Further, it is ssagprie! possible to describe our aparea species in 
terms more than the following :—‘‘Culmus in summitate 
nutat, cul ly solitarie pedunculis tenuissimis adnectuntur, ita 
ut omnes flores sub culmo penduli sint” (Fl. Lapp.). Hveryone 
who has seen “the real Melica nutans,” to quote from Sir J. 
Smith (Eng. Bot. t. 1059), in our r northern woods is fully alive to 
the grace and beauty of its pendulous florets. The character is 
insisted on in all the floras, aes nae edited by H. and J. 
Groves. The citation from Bauhin (in Fl. Lapp.) is further pees 
if further proof be needed, that Linneeus is here describing our 
northern and not our common species. 
In view of the usually accepted trivial name of the common 
apes the phrase aay Fl. Lapp.) ‘‘ Cal. Gluma uniflora” may 
islead the incautiou It must be noted, however, that this 
aeias does not refer “4 the species but to the genus ; oe ast 
says: ‘“ —— hujus — oooh ca ex Cal. 
Gl niflor his phrase is gre 
strengthened by Linneus’s Dandie. ys ay (el. 1, p. 335, 1737), 
ere the description of the genus again commences with “Ca alyx 
Ginna uniflora,” and the whole generic description is simply that 
which follows the words ‘ Characterem ... generis . . . exhibeo”’ 
in the Flora  ebpenien with additional prea derived from 
other organs. The a. is ee ha ne, and Linnzus 
amended it later; for we fi he fifth edition of his Genera 
Plantarum (p. 31, 1754), tbat’ . Cal. Gluma uniflora” has become 
“Cal. Gluma biflora.” As a matter of fact, our northern species 
has two —, and some imperf Oy) our common 
91, 1800) m sed ion the expression to “Cal . . . sub-biflorous.” 
It is plain, therefore, if we may judge from the clear specific 
description ag by agg himself in a work which he quotes 
n his Species Plantarum, that our northern species should be 
‘acaba as the type of Melioa nutans Linn. 
The herbarium of Linneus contains a specimen of Melica, 
