Spartina alterniflora & hybrids - early collections

[oldnick]

The textbooks, eg Cope & Grey (& see their refs eg Gray et al 'a century of evolution in S anglica' 1991), inform us the neophyte alterniflora was first recorded (in the Itchen) 1829; its hybrid xtownsendii was discovered (Hythe, Southampton Water) was collected 1870 and described 1880; and its subsequent hybrid S anglica (famous in evolution) was collected (Southampton Water) 1892. (I have not yet read up on the subject).
There are currently no specimens of the latter in H@H.
Charles Darwin's eldest son lived at Southampton, he has just one collection in H@H, from Hythe, of
H@H specimens of townsendii (which I understand was described named etc by H&J Groves) include:
http://herbariaunited.org/specimen/289965/ 1/9/1879 coll H Groves (ie pre-1880 so was the label written then), near Hythe, passed to BECBI & A Ley;
[message to be continued hopefully as a 'reply'? due to small size of this box.......]

[oldnick]

......message continued:
http://herbariaunited.org/specimen/239339/ coll H Groves 10/1880, near Hythe, passed to W H Painter
http://herbariaunited.org/specimen/297481/ coll Groves illegible 9/10/1880, Hythe, passed to A Ley, has the date altered to 9/10/1883.
Another, S stricta, http://herbariaunited.org/specimen/258260/ was coll 8/1879 Rev F H Arnold, near Chichester, passed to W H Painter; this has been entered on H@H as xtownsendii but stricta is a synonym of maritima (the native, now reduced to local) I believe
S maritima: http://herbariaunited.org/specimen/298237/ Charles Darwin's eldest son W E Darwin [sorry for typo at start of message] lived at Southampton, this his one collection in H@H, from Hythe, 7/8/1875 passed to Prof W Hillhouse; it is of maritima but could it suggest he was in on something? [William Erasmus Darwin, 1839–1914 was a banker in Southampton]. On this 'conspiracy theory' basis, other interesting collections of maritima from the area are 1847 Southampton, 1853 Itchen and 1868 Woolston.
Conclusion: if any of this info could be considered new, it might add to the textbook story.