240 THE BOTANICAL EXCHANGE CLUB OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 
Bromus madritensis , L., var. rigidus (Roth). Portelet Isle, Jersey, 
June, 1888. Ex herb. J. H. A. Steuart and G. C. Druce. 
B. racemosus , L. Pastures, Burnham, North Somerset, 10th June, 
1888; and by Lawrence Weston, West Glo’ster, June, 1888. The 
comital details of the distribution in Britain of the Serrafalcus section 
of the genus Bro 7 ?ius given in £ Top. Bot.’ are very incomplete and 
unsatisfactory. Not only is B. commutatus treated as an aggregate, 
and made to include B. racemosus ; but the latter name, when 
mentioned, is confessedly used doubtfully, as having been applied to 
at least three allied grasses. Moreover, in his mention of B. 
eu-racemosus , Mr. Watson seems to have considered it an importation 
brought in with foreign seeds, and said that his own knowledge of it 
was limited to its rare occurrence in Surrey, where he had observed it 
only in fields of sown grasses, and casually about railway stations. 
Our experience in the West of England is markedly different. In 
West Gloster and North Somerset B. eu-racemosus occurs in perhaps 
the majority of pastures, and is nowhere more abundant than in the 
rich grazing district that borders the Bristol Channel, where ancient 
marshes have been reclaimed and protected from inundation. This 
land has never felt the plough. On some portions of it the grass 
under notice is more plentiful than any other, and, in my opinion, is 
undoubtedly native. — J. Walter White. “Yes, rightly named.” — 
E. Hackel. 
B. mollis , L. var. Chalky field, between Unwell Wood and 
Blewburton Camp, Berks., July, 1888. — G. C. Druce. The field in 
which it occurred was very barren, having had only a very scanty 
crop of barley the previous year, and was now lying fallow. This 
variety was the prevailing plant. In the country round, the var. 
glabrescens of mollis was a frequent corn field plant. After consulting 
various authors and herbaria I could find no similar variety, and was 
about to name it aggregata. (Persoon indeed had a var. conglobatus, 
but it did not agree with our plant.) I submitted some specimens to 
Prof. Hackel, who describes it as follows “ B. mollis , L., var. 
interrupt a, mihi (Hackel). Panicula brevi, interrupta, spiculis . 
glomeratis, obovato ellipticis, gluma sterili superiore dimidiam 
spiculam aequante v. superante. Affinis B. molli , var. conglomerato 
Persoon ‘Syn., J i. 96, cujus panicula aequaliter compacta, spicuke 
angustiores, villosiores.” Prof. Hackel kindly offered to retain my 
suggested name, but I should have gladly given way to one whose 
researches in the Graniinacece have been so thorough, and to whom 
this club is deeply indebted for his valued criticism, given ungrudgingly 1 
at a time when his monograph must have occupied so much of his , 
time, even if his name had not been so much more descriptive than 
my own. — Ed. 
B. commutatus, Schrad. Radcot, Oxon, July, 1886. This and ! 
racemosus , L., I hold to be truly native in Oxford and Berks. — G. C. 1 
Druce. 
B. mollis , L., var. glabrescens , Coss. Blewburton Camp, Berks., j! 
June, 1888. — G. C. Druce. “ B. mollis , L., glabrescens ,” — E. j 
Hackel. 
