580 GBAMiNE.E. [Alopcettrus. 



2. A. geniculafus, L. Floating Foxtail-grass. Culms ascend- 

 ing bent at the joints, panicle spiked cylindrical obtuse, glumes 

 nnited strongly ciliated on the back, their summits obtuse, awn 

 twice as long as the glumes, corolla notched. Sm. E. Fl. i. p. 83. 

 Br. Fl. p. 517. Lind. Syn. p. 300. E. B. xviii. t. 1250. 



0. Culms swollen, clavate or bulb-shaped at their baee. 



y. Awns longer than the florets, root bulbous, sheaths wider than the thickness 

 of the ctilm, anthers purple, changing to brownish yellow. 



In moist meadows and pastures, also in shallow pools and ditches, or even on 

 dry ground ; very commonly. Fl. May — August. If. 



/3. With a. occasionally. On the Dover, Ryde, and elsewhere. 



y. In a bog at the source of the Yar, Freshwater gate (Easton marsh). 

 Withering. 



The culms of this species are sometimes found club-shaped or somewhat bul- 

 bous at their base, which has occasioned its being mistaken for A. bulbosus. I 

 have occasionally met with the variety in this island, and was at first deceived by 

 it myself The appearance is purely accidental, and does not appear to depend, 

 as has long been thought, on dryness of soil, for I have remarked it in specimens 

 gathered in a very wet meadow, amongst others with roots not at all enlarged, 

 whilst of numei-ous starved plants taken from the driest sand not one presented 

 the clavate appearance which has caused so much misunderstanding amongst 

 authors respecting the genuine A. bulbosus. 



This plant is given as a native of N. America. 



3. A. bulbosus, L. Tiiberoics Foxtail-grags. Culms erect? 

 ascending or spreading, panicle spiked cylindrical acuminate, 

 glumes very acute with 5 strong ribs shortly ciliated on the back 

 free, base of the stem enlarged into bulb-like tubers. Sin. E. Fl. 

 i. p. 83. Br. Fl. p. 617. Lind. Syn. p. 299. E. B. xviii. t. 

 1249. Knapp, Br. Gr. t. 17. Parn. Gr. t. 76. 



In salt-marsh meadows, also in dry pasture and waste ground near the sea ; in 

 several places. Ft. May, June. If. 



'E. Med. — On the Dover, Ryde, in great pl-enty. Meadows between the Dover 

 and the Gasometer. Salt-marshes between Bembridge and Brading, near the 

 sluice, &c., abundantly. Marshy spot by the roadside betwixt Brading and San- 

 down, 1 848, W. Borrer, Esq. On the lawn of Lord Spencer's house at Ryde, Dr. 

 Bell-Sall<!r. 



W. Med. — Between Yarmouth and Thorley, by the roadside near the bridge. 



Our Isle-of-Wight plant is unquestionably that of Sir James Smith and of 

 Knapp, Br. Grasses, t. 17, which last represents the slender tapering spike and ge- 

 neral habit much better than the figure in Engl. Botany, where the spike is drawn 

 much more ovate or less attenuated. Both these authors have fallen into error in 

 their several descriptions ; the -first in asserting that A. bulbosus " always grows in 

 water," since I find it in very dry ground, and am inclined to believe the bulbs 

 are a provision of Nature for storing up in their fleshy and succulent substance a 

 sufiiciency of that moisture for the growth of the plant denied it by the soil. 

 Knapp is mistaken in asserting that j4. bulbosus is never decidedly "knee-bent," 

 though he admits it has a tendency to become so. It is in fact olten as procum- 

 bent and as much bent at the lower joint as A. geniculaius, but does not, like 

 that, emit rooting fibres lium the prostrate culm, and is when largest its inferior 

 in size, though in a dry soil and starved condition A. geniculaius may be found 

 as diminutive as the true A. bulbosus, and so closely resembling the latter as not 

 to be distinguishable from it except alter a close examination. I find both spe- 

 cies flourishing in close proximity on the Dover and marsh-meadows contiguous, 

 under precisely similar conditions of dryness or moisture ; yet, in cases where the 

 'rcaeuiblance between indiuduals of each kind is so strong that I <:un hardly 



