‘¢, NEW HYBRID GRASS” 109 
more frequently it is combined with partial or complete obliteration 
of the stamens and pistils, and the substitution for these organs of 
an equivalent or an increase — er of scales. For three years 
in succession I have noticed plants affected with this variation or 
deformity, in the same locality, interning with specimens of the 
usual appearance.’ The scales in specimens of this variety may 
be derived from the palew or from the base of the stigmata, and 
their duplication, as in the flowers of Galanthus, cause the inflor- 
escence to become more or less spherical. 
It is only fair to say that at the date, a when Dr, Masters 
wrote his interesting paper, in which and other forms are 
described—and I may also refer to another pee on Lolium perenne 
by him, which appeared in the Journal of the Linnean Society, vii., 
pp. 120-124—the occurrence of hybrids in the vegetable kingdom 
was 2 byieae Seite in Britain as they are at the present day. 
Still, not think even now that Dr. Masters would claim a 
hybrid origin for his variety. Pr obably it was considered to be a 
monstrous form by the various editors of the London Catalogue, as 
it is omitted from the various editions with which I am cognisant, 
and Dr. Boswell Syme, in Eng. a xi. p. 186, says: ‘monstrosities 
of the spike are not unfrequent . . . sometimes the florets are 
fasciculate within the glumes, sr in this are frequently inflated 
and “eed sp so as to be ovoid, and sometimes shorter than 
the glum 
The F Rev KE. F. Linton, however, suggests that, aa ~ 
disputing Prof. Hackel’s identification of the Avon plan 
asters’s variety, yet that both the Avon plant and the td sere 
Rateruns owe their peculiarities to their hybrid origin, and that 
while “ Lolium perenne was the obvious constituent, Bromus commu- 
tatus Li. [sic], which was present in abundance, would account for 
the differences in this puzzling grass.’ 
In order to get a definite opinion on this point, I wrote to Prof. 
aaa who replies: ‘I remember that it was a true Lolium, and 
a hybr rid with Bromus; I believe that the crossing of Lolium 
ne Bromus is totally impossible ; these two genera are much more 
distant than Lolium and Festuca, especially in the structure of the 
fruits, their starch-grains, &c. 
One can scarcely expect uniformity of opinion respecting many 
forms of pe and oe speculative ad as to parents of 
“ey vary 
nich is placed first on the 
Rey. E. F. Linton’s label). I do not oT it either ‘“‘a new 
