APOCARPE^ 383 



Dwarf Grass Wrack (Zoster a nana). 



In the first Latin name, derived from the Greek 

 zoster, girdle, the strap-Hke or ribbon-like leaves are 

 described. In the second Latin name the distinct- 

 ive character of this species, its small size, as 

 contrasted with the more common Z. marina^ is 

 indicated. 



This is one of the few marine types of British 

 flowering plants. Its distribution is thus confined to 

 maritime counties. It is a rare plant, found in several 

 areas from Forfar and Argyll to Sussex and Cornwall, 

 on the British coasts, and in Dublin Bay in Ireland. 



Muddy estuaries, or sandy shores between high- and 

 low-water mark are the habitats of this plant. It is 

 found in the salt-marsh formation, in what is known 

 as Zosteretum or the Grass Wrack association attached 

 to pebbles or rock fragments in sand or mud. 



The Grass Wracks have a ribbon-growth type of 

 habit. The stem is creeping below, and rooting at 

 intervals. The branching is monopodial, and as the 

 branches grow upward it becomes sympodial, the 

 axillary shoot being united to the main axis for some 

 distance. This mode of branching is characteristic 

 of a rhipidium, as in Iris. The leaves are long, slender, 

 linear, one-veined, sheathing below. 



The inflorescence is a flattened spadix, and when 

 the plant is in flower enclosed in a spathe, the sheath 

 of the uppermost leaf. The spadix is short with two 

 to five clasping bands, the margin with membranous 



