TWO NEW GRASSES. 35 



Milium scabrum, Merlet de la Boulaye, Herbor. Maine et Loire, 

 220 (1809). 

 Syn. M. confertum, Mill. Gard. Diet. (1768), non L. 

 M. confertum, Guss. Fl. Sic. Syn. i. 131 (1842). 

 M. effusum, fi, Kunth, Enum. Plant, i. 66 (1833). 

 M. vernale, Dub. et al. (non. Bieb.), teste Nyinan. 



Annual. Root fibrous. Stems erect or ascending, 1^-4 in. 

 high. Leaves flat, short, uppermost not one-fourth as long as 

 its sheath. Sheaths strongly striate, somewhat inflated. 

 Ligule long, acute. Panicle about 1 in. long, erect, con- 

 tracted ; branches short, 2-nate, unequal, capillary, flexuous. 

 Spikelets ovoid, 1 line long. Two outer glumes equal, convex, 

 obscurely 3-nerved, green or purplish, with narrow scarious 

 border. Fertile glume smaller, pale green, smooth, shining ; 

 its margins enfolding the similar palea. Stem, sheaths, rachis, 

 panicle-branches, and outer glumes all slightly scabrid. 



Distribution, according to Nyman.— Batav. ; Belg. (sec. 

 Pari.) ; Gall. occ. mer. ; Cors. ; Sicil. ; Ital. med. mer. ; 

 Cretae et Cephal. mont. ex Heldr. Richter gives " Eur. med. 

 et mer.," which is again insufficient. 



It seems impossible to distinguish M. scabrum specifically 

 from M. vernale, Bieb., which only differs in its larger size 

 and diffuse panicle. It is said also to be less scabrous, but 

 M. scabrum varies greatly in this character. Both plants 

 grow in Italy, and Parlatore considers M. scabrum to be 

 merely a variety of M. vernale. Richter gives it as M. vernale 

 b. scabrum. Kunth classed it as a variety of the perennial 

 M. effusum, but appears to be alone in this view. M, vernale, 

 like M. scabrum, is an annual, and intermediate forms can be 

 seen in the British Museum Herbarium which it is difficult to 

 assign with certainty to either. 



I found this plant growing sparingly on the southern 

 cliffs of Guernsey, near Petit Bot, on April 17th, 1899. 

 These cliffs are about 300 feet in height, the precipitous face 

 varying from 100 to 150 feet; the remainder consists of a 

 steep slope, overgrown in many parts with gorse, heather, and 

 bracken, and everywhere covered with vegetation, except 

 where the bare rock projects in boulders. M. scabrum grows 

 on the lower part of this green slope, well away from any houses 

 or cultivated land ; in no part of the island is one less likely 

 to meet with an alien or casual. 



Merlet's original specimens came from Thouars, in the 

 department of Deux-Sevres, where the plant still grows. 

 Lloyd (Flore de V Quest de France, 402 — 1886) states that it 



