10 



lower part of the palea, scarcely exceeding it in length. Anthers 

 short, broad. 



Alopecurus Mvus, Smith. E. B. 1467; ed. 2. 89*; and of most 

 modern botanists. A. geniculatus, Host, Gram. Aust. v. 3. 

 tab. 32. Hooker, Fl. Scot. 1. p. 22. 



Less common than A. geniculatus, but far from unfrequent on 

 the sides of ponds and ditches, and sometimes growing in the water 

 from the bottom. It is a more luxuriant plant, with broader 

 foliage and larger flower-spikes, though so much resembling the 

 last species in structure as almost to justify belief in their identity. 

 Although Dr. Withering and other earlier English writers suspected 

 it might prove distinct from the species under which they placed 

 it. Sir J. E. Smith was the first to bestow upon it name and place 

 as such, and that with some hesitation. Stems one to two feet or 

 more in length, decumbent at the lower part, branched and knee- 

 bent at the joints, usually sheathed by leaves to the base of the 

 inflorescence. Ligule oblong. Spike cylindrical, usually tapering 

 at the upper part, two or three inches long, pale green. Glumes 

 connected at the base, about the length of the palea or scarcely 

 equal to it. Palea oblong, obtuse. Awn fine and very short. 

 Anthers peculiarly short, or nearly equal in length and breadth ; 

 when ripe deep orange colour, rendering the plant very conspicuous 

 at a considerable distance when in flower. Styles generally separate 

 to the base. 



Perennial. Flowers from July to September. 



The initial letters appended to the magnified figures of the 

 flowers, corresponding throughout, will, as in the instance above 

 cited between A. pratensis and A. alpinus, enable the reader to 

 contrast the structural differences of the three species last de- 

 scribed. Of the value attaching to some of the features assumed as 

 characteristic there may be some question, without involving the 

 necessity of discarding them altogether. Thus the complete di- 

 stinctness of the glumes in A. iulbosus, and their, frequently very 

 equivocal, union at the base in A. geniculatus and A. fulvus, are 

 characters which must be lightly estimated by the student of vege- 

 table morphology, as are likewise those derived from the union or 

 separation of the styles remarked upon by some botanists : but, 

 however liable to vary, their preponderance must be the result of 

 organic or physiological action, an action, which though Hable to 

 be influenced by accident, may originate in a more profound and 

 less unstable source; hence the difiiculty in determining between 

 species and varieties. 



