TRIANDRIA— DIGYNIA. Arundo. 169 



1. A. Phragmites. Common Reed. 



Florets about five, awnless, longer than the calyx. Panicle 

 loose. 



A. Phragmites. Linn. Sp. PL 120. Willd. v. 1.454. FL Br. 144. 

 Engl. Bot. v. 6. £.401. Knapp t. 95. Hook. Scot. 27. Schrad. 

 Germ. v. 1 . 223. t.b.f. 4. Leers 45. t. 7.f. 1 . Ehrh. Calam. 108. 



A. n. 1515. Hall, Hist. v. 2. 240. 



A. vallatoria. Rail Syn. 401. Ger. Em, 36. f. 



A. vulgaris. Bauh. Theatr. 269./. Scheuchz. AgrA6l. t. 3./. 14, D. 



A. palustris. Mattlx. Valgr. v. 1. 134./. Camer. Epit. 73. f. 



A. vulgaris palustris. Moris, v. 3. 218. sect. 8. t. 8./. 1. 



In marshes, ditches, and about the banks of pools and rivers, very 

 abundant. 



Perennial. July. 



Root creeping. Stons stout, about 6 feet high, annual, hollow, 

 very smooth, with many knots. Leaves a foot long, or more, 

 lanceolate, many-ribbed, rough-edged, tapering to a fine, almost 

 capillary, point ; ovate at the base j smoothest at the back. 

 Sheaths long, close, striated, scarcely rough ; crowned with 

 tufted silky hairs, which supply the place of a stipula. Panicle 

 very large, repeatedly compound, the branches half-whorled, 

 greatly subdivided, angular, nearly smooth, close, a little droop- 

 ing to one side, and waving in the wind. Glumes brownish pur- 

 ple, all narrow, and smooth, except the keel of the outer valve 

 of the corolla, and the ribs of the inner. There is no awn. The 

 hairs in this species spring rather from the common receptacle, 

 or partial stalk ; so that the lowermost/2ore£ is, as Schrader re- 

 marks, almost without any, yet not quite so. The rest of the 

 species answer more truly to the generic character, having the 

 hairs on the corolla itself, and constituting a most natural well- 

 defined genus j from which nevertheless it would be verv rash 

 to separate A. Phragmites ; for to say nothing of their common 

 habit, there are various gradations. Still less can the solitary 

 florets of many species cause them to constitute a separate ge- 

 nus ; yet some have attempted this, by the very faulty appella- 

 tion of Calamagrostis, compounded of two other established 

 names ! 

 The Common Reed is useful for thatching, garden-fences, &c., and 

 is annually cut, as a regular crop, for such purposes. 



2. A. epigejos. Wood Reed. 



Calyx single-flowered, longer than the corolla. Panicle 

 erect, close. Flowers crowded, unilateral. Corolla with 

 a dorsal awn about as long as the hairs and calyx. Leaves 

 lanceolate. 



A. epigejos. Linn. Sp. PL 120. Willd.v. 1. 456. Fl. Br.145. Engl, 



