CLASS ni. ORDKa Il.J ELYMUS. 14^ 



of tiie spikelet. Gluinelles two, nearly equal. — Name, " sXvuo^, 

 given by the Greeks to the Panic-grasses, perhaps because they 

 grew abundantly about Elyma, in Greece. Theis." — (Hook.) 



1. E. arena'rius, Linn. (Fig. 190.) upright Sea Lyme-grass. Spike 

 erect, close ; spikelets in pairs ; florets as long as the lanceolate 

 glumes. 



English Botany, t. 1672. — English Flora, vol. i. p. 177. — Lindley, 

 Synopsis, p. 296. — Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. 55. — Sinclair, Hor t 

 Gram. Wobuvn. p. 368. 



Root with numerous long, tough, creeping underground stems. Stem 

 from three to four feet high, round, smooth, striated, leafy, stout. 

 Leaves long, the margins rolled inwards, the point acute, hard, smooth, 

 glaucous, the upper side with numerous strong stria, the under quite 

 smooth. Sheaths long, close, smooth, striated. Ligula very short, 

 obtuse. Injflorescence an erect, close spike, from four to twelve inches 

 long, pale glaucous-green, the rachis notched and waved. Spikelets 

 about three-flowered, two, sometimes three, from the same point. 

 Glumes lanceolate, with a largish sharp point, keeled, and more or less 

 distinctly ribbed, smooth or slightly downy. Florets elevated on short 

 downy footstalks. Glumelles equal, lanceolate, downy : the 0M?fr valve 

 teeled, and with four lateral ribs ; the inner thin, membranous, with 

 two lateral ribs and a slightly bifid apex. Glumellules lanceolate, 

 downy, and ciliated. Stigmas feathery. Frnit linear, the apex hairy, 

 furrowed on one side. 



Hahilat. — Sandy sea-shores ; frequent. 



Perennial ; flowering (but rarely) in July. 



Neither this nor the following species are grasses of any agricultural 

 utility, although they contain a large proportion of nutritive matter, 

 remarkable for the quantity of saccharine substance which it contains. 

 They are, nevertheless, grasses of considerable importance in prevent- 

 ing the encroachments of the sea, especially the E. arenaria, which is 

 frequently found growing in company with Ammophila arenaria and 

 Carex arenaria, all of which have long, tough, creeping underground 

 stems, with numerous fibrous downy, roots interweaving themselves 

 together, and forming a kind of network, which, together with their 

 stout tufted stems and wide-spreading leaves, form a natural barrier 

 admirably adapted by Nature to prevent the encroachment of the loose 

 and flowing sands, which would otherwise advance, and convert many 

 of the now fertile meadows or the luxuriant plains into deserts of 

 moving sand. Much land has been lost at various periods by the 

 encroachment of the sea, as well as by the inundation of sand, owing 

 lo these natural protections having been destroyed by reckless people. 

 Of so much importance have these grasses been esteemed, €ven so fat 

 jback as the reign of William III., as to induce the Scottish Parliament 

 of that period to render its destruction penal ; and thve ptovisions 



