466 
BOTANICAL NOTES. 
This author follows Mr. Hudson in making it a variety of the supposed capillar is,, 
i. e ., our vulgaris. Dr. Smith considers A. alba as one of Mr. Hudson’s varieties 
under A. polymorpha. —-Col. Velley’s MS. notes. 
A. pumila. —I consider these specimens curious, inasmuch as they show Mr. 
Hudson’s discrimination, since confirmed by the opinions of Dr. Smith and Mr. 
Knapp, in placing this variety under the same arrangement as A. capillaris , i. e. 
our vulgaris . Dr. Smith observes that pumila is the production of sterile and 
exposed situations. These specimens confirm his remark. I gathered them both 
from the same tuft on the summit of Glydir Vaur, North-Wales.—Col. Velley’s 
MS. notes. 
Agrostis stolonifera. —The stoloniferous character is very evident in this plant. 
Dr. Withering describes the panicle as compact, and thickly crowded with florets 
at the base. Linnaeus notices the equal valves of the calyx; the outer one of 
which is serrated. Both these circumstances are observable in the above specimen. 
It should seem that Leers has had another species in view for stolonifera ; his 
figure, tab. 4, f. 6 , represents our variety pumila , which answers with Curtis’s 
supposed capillaris , as I have already shown. The description of Leers totally 
disagrees with Withering’s; for he says 44 panicula pauciflora” and calyx 
unequal. He also describes the footstalks as 44 undulato divaricati” which cor¬ 
respond with those of var. mutica. —Col. Velley’s MS. notes. 
Festuca vivipara. —Mr. Knapp, who has investigated the Grasses with a 
Lynx’s eye, is the only author I have met with who observes that the inner 
valve of the corolla is wanting, not being necessary, as in other species where the 
fructification requires protection. This protecting economy of the inner valve is 
remarkably apparent in the Bromi. The small valves which are indicated by 
asterisks are the exterior ones of two distinct floscules, with the rudiment of the 
viviparous germ, which possibly would have constituted the inner valve if the 
metamorphosis had not taken place. Mr. Knapp has properly noticed the 
luxuriant growth of this Grass on Ueau-d’or Lake (Lowdore), where I gathered 
the above specimen, which runs counter to its more general character— 44 Panicula 
abbreviata subsimplex secunda ,” FI. Brit., 115. It is observed also in the Flora 
Britannica ,— 44 Spiculce plerumque mollissimepubescentes but in those speci¬ 
mens which I have found, the spiculce were nearly, if not entirely glabrous.—Col. 
Velley’s MS. notes. Mr. Henry Shepherd observes in some specimens which 
he procured from Ingleborough, that the spiculce are nearly glabrous, andr that the 
pedicles are scabrous in a moderate degree. 
Coggeshall , Essex , 
March 1, 183.9. 
