164 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



was found in considerable quantity at Hoylake in September, 

 1905, growing on waste ground, and evidently quite established. 



E. DRABBLE. 



A Hybrid Erigekon. — In August, 1884, I found E. acris L. and 

 E. canadensis L. growing together in sandy ground near Tilford, 

 Surrey. With them was one specimen which at the time I sus- 

 pected to be their offspring, and, having recently come across the 

 plant in my herbarium and carefully examined it, I am convinced 

 that such is really the case. Though E. acris X canadensis does not 

 seem to have been previously detected in Britain, Focke says that 

 it has been found in a few stations in East Germany. — Edward S. 

 Marshall. 



Stipa membranacea L. — In the Annals of Scottish Natural 

 History, 1906, p. 229, I suggested that Festuca uniglumis Soland. 

 was antedated by the trivial name given by Linnseus as Stipa 

 membranacea, Sp. PL 560, 1753. This was contested in this 

 Journal (p. 28), and more recently on p. 107, where Messrs. Britten 

 and Rendle say : " Stipa membranacea L., which has been suggested 

 as a synonym, is altogether doubtful ; for full discussion, see 

 Duval-Jouve in Rev. Sci. Nat. Ser. 2, ii. 32-5, 1880." My atten- 

 tion to this grass was called many years ago when I examined the 

 grasses of the Linnean Herbarium and checked them with General 

 Munro's excellent paper which appeared in Journ. Linn. Soc. vi. 

 pp. 33-55, and in which he identified the above plant with Festuca 

 uniglumis. Recently I have again examined the specimen. Often- 

 times the herbarium of Linnaeus is of little value in determining 

 the types of the Species Plantannn, but in this instance no such 

 difficulty occurs. The specimen is labelled in Linnseus's own hand, 

 V Stipa membranacea, ,, and its origin is given "Loefling. ex His- 

 pania"; and as the description in Sp. PI. is based on Loefling's 

 plant from Spain, we need have no hesitation in saying that this 

 specimen is the type. It is true the description "laxa debilis " 

 does not appear applicable to uniglumis ; but the fact is the plant 

 of Loefliug is a lax shade-growth form, to which the above descrip- 

 tion is not inapplicable, w r hile it also helps to corroborate the 

 identity of the specimen as being the Linnean type. Linnaeus says 

 that the habit is that of an Avena, and this at first glance suggests 

 something quite away from Festuca ; but the Linnean genus Avena 

 contained A. jiavescens, to which indeed this specimen is not very 

 dissimilar. It is true that Duval-Jouve (I. c.) writes at considerable 

 length on the subject, but his objections are chiefly based* on the 

 fact that Linmeus's description on the genus Stipa excludes this 

 plant. Obviously, if it were a Stipa, there would be no reason in 

 removing it to Festuca. He also says that the words u laxa debilis" 

 cannot refer to uniglumis. But a glance at the Herbarium would 

 have shown that they do. On the other hand, Link, Parlatore, 

 and other eminent botanists accepted Stipa membranacea as syn- 

 onymous with F. uniglumis ; therefore Link, who put it in the 

 genus Vulpia, called it V. membranacea. I may say that Prof. 



Hackel, although bearing in mind the words "laxa debilis " and 





