PLiANTS OF SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY. 233 



Spartina cynosuroides (L.). Salt Reed Grass. 

 PI. XV., Fig. I. 



Dactylus cynosuroides Linnaeus, Sp. PI. 71. 1753 [Virginia, Canada and Lousi- 



tania]. 

 Spartina polystachya Knieskern 38. — Willis 73. — Britton 283.— Keller and 



Brown 47. 



Common on the edges of salt marshes and along brackish 

 creeks ; not extending inland, as does the preceding. 



PL — Early August into September. Panicles persist through 

 autumn. 



Maritime. — Forked River, Seaside Park, Manahawkin, Surf City (L), 

 Barnegat City (L), Barnegat City Jnc. (L), Absecon, Atlantic City, Palermo, 

 Cedar Bonnet (L), Dennisville, Cape May (OHB), Sluice Creek, Upper 

 English Creek (T), Salem. 



Spartina patens Ait. Salt Meadow Grass. 



Plate XV., Fig. 5. 



Dactylis patens Aiton, Hort. Kew. I. 104. 1789 [North America]. 

 Spartina juncea Muhlenberg Cat. 8. 1813. — Muhlenberg Gram. 54. 1817. — 

 Knieskern 38. — Willis 73. — Britton 283. 

 Spartina patens Keller and Brown 47. 



Abundant all over the salt meadows. 



This grass, along with Distichlis spicata and J uncus gerardi 

 forms the bulk of the low even vegetation that covers the firmer 

 parts of the salt meadows, the mass of tangled roots of the three 

 species being mainly responsible for holding together the black 

 mud and sand which form the meadows. 



Dondia, Salicornia, and other salt marsh plants occur in more 

 sandy spots, and along the creeks is a taller growth of Spartina 

 glabra, but the green carpet which covers miles upon miles of 

 our coastal marshes consists mainly of the three species above 

 mentioned, and the "salt hay" that the farmers along the shore 

 are in the habit of gathering is composed of the same plants. 



Hay-making in the autumn is a common sight on the "mead- 

 ows," and once or twice I have seen the crop being hauled in in 

 mid-winter. 



The more robust form regarded as a species, S. juncea by 

 Merrill (Bull. PI. Indust. U. S. Dept. Agr. IX 12, 1902), 

 originallv described as Trachynotia juncea by Michaux (Fl. 



