, .S n m r n m n T 1 T i m AGROSTIS TRIARISmT A4 mTA 4 . <f Pl!1EDM CKINITOM, Schreier. Aiop. monspel. Sp.PI. Withering,tic.
LA lo pec. aristatus, Hudson.
Green Bent-grass.
Sp e c . C h a r . Panicle branched, expanding but little; calyx, both valves furnished with an arista ot
generally four times their own length;' corolla, two unequal valves, the larger one with an arista
o f scarcely its length; panicle not coloured.
We have no race o f indigenous grasses that possess more elegant forms than the genus Agro3tis;
the eye is pleased with the various tints of the calyx, and the airy lightness of the expanded panicle;
but the investigators find little to be amused with in this mutable and elusive genus: as an elegant
species, the plant we have denominatede triaristata | is fully equal to any o f the race. It is rather a
subject o f admiration how writers o f such celebrity as Linnaeus, Ray, Hudson, and Withering, could
ever have considered this plant as constituting a species in the genus Alopecurus! as the double-valved
corolla unquestionably confutes the idea.------ Schreber, in his Gramina, has given us a good delineation
o f it under the name of e Phleum crinitum,’ but it cannot associate with Phleum; a genus in which,
if plants not strongly possessing the generical character are once admitted, will become confused as
easily as any we remember; the character is sufficient as it stands, but will become weak by any
deviation. The peculiar truncated calyx of Phleum is wanting in our plant, but instead of it we find
the valves acute, as are those of Agrostis, with which genus it appears fully to accord.—— Leaves
slender and weak, rough on the inner side, smooth bn the. outer; all o f them furnished with long
stipulae: leaves commonly bent downwards. Calyx, each valve with an arista o f three or four times
its length: the corolla has a small arista on its larger valve o f scarcely its own length. Dr.
Withering, in the 2d edition o f Bot. Arrang. considers this out Agrostis triaristata and Agros. littoralis
as the same species; a great similarity certainly exists between them, though they preserve a separate
character to the eye, and perhaps a sufficient specific distinction; yet if we divest them of their
aristae, and efface the colour o f the panicle (neither of which should be ever botanical characteristics),
how little remains as a manifestation of their difference!------ This plant has always been considered
as a rare species, yet several places are mentioned by Hudson and Ray as producing i t : at Purfleet,
the habitat of this last writer, we sought it without success: we observed five or six plants (but so
small a number deserves not the mention.of a station) in a damp place in the marshes of Erith.
A, the Calyx.
B, the Corolla.
C, the back of the larger Valve.