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ON FESTUCA HETEROPHYLLA. 49
having ever had the right thing.* Dr. Stebler states that " gardeners
use various-leaved fescues for borders, &c.," but does not say whether
the plant intended is fallax or heterophylla. Mr. Carruthers kindly
showed me the original work, as well as the English translation,
and I take the following remark from that :— " It is said, if sown
in the open, to come up, but to be much less vigorous, and to
quickly fall off in its yield, as Langethal . . . mentions."
I have seen a specimen of Mr. Brotherston's plant from near
Kelso, referred to by Mr. Britten at p. 272, and consider it to be
rightly named, though the specimen is scanty. Its occurrence as a
true native in Scotland is most improbable, and the locality (road-
sides) is suspicious in itself.
On the whole, I think the
justify Mr. Carruthers' statement
evidence qaite insufficient to
[l. c.) :— '• That the plant has
been in cultivation for over seventy years, and that the seed can
be purchased at any seedsman's for a small price per pound, cannot
be doubted." In fact it h extremely doubtfiU ivhether true seed is
procurable at all in this country. Yet it is a very ornamental grass,
and one which might well be used for the shaded parts of a garden,
or for ornamental plantations ; and its occurrence at Kelso may be
due to such a cause, or to mere accidental introduction. Even if
it were a species largely cultivated, that would not militate against its
being a true native, as ivell.
A friend whose opinion I estimate very highly has questioned
the Witley station, on account of the immediate proximity of
rhododendrons and other planted things ; but I have not found a
single root of the Festuca growing under them. The soil on which
it occurs seems to have been little, if at all, disturbed ; and its
companion-grasses are all native. These are F. rubra, F. ovina, vars.
vulgaris and capillata, Dactylis, Poa nemoralis and P. pratensis, var.
angustifolia. My own decided opinion, after carefully balancing
the probabilities, is still in favour of its being equally native with
the rest. The Hants station so far as my memory serves me, is
not open to the same objection, on the ground of introduced
neighbours. I believe that the species, if looked for, will be found
in many parts of Southern England, though very likely of local
occurrence. Mr. Druce appears to think it a probable native in
his Oxfordshire locality.
In Dr. Hackel's ' Mon. Fest. eur.,' (p. 130) F. heterophtjlla,
this plant is placed as a subspecies of F. rubra. In my humble
opinion, it has quite as strong claims to specific distinctness as
either rubra or orina ; and the learned author himself wrote to me,
on its first discovoi-y, that " he must admit never having found any
certain transitional forms ; a fact tending to justify the specific
separation." It may be desirable to give his description of the
grass, as the monograph is not widely known in this country :
• Since this paper has been in the printer's hands, Messis. Sutton have
sent me a plant of the true F. heterophylla, grown on their trial grounds in
1886. They add : " We have many years sold seed (juitc as true as tliat
which we sent to you, but lately it has been so much mixed with A irajli'xuom that
we have been unable to separate it and, therefore, could not offer it."—E. S. M.
Journal of Botany.—Vol. 28. [Feb. 1890.] k