fl 



194 



only justified in suspecting its exotic origin from the account just 

 given (one not very conclusive of the inference), and from the 

 fact, that as far as we know, this species of Spartina has not 

 before been detected elsewhere in this or any other European 

 country. 



" The poorer classes of Southampton employ Spartina alterni- 

 , )ra for thatching the roofs of out-houses, cattle-sheds, Ac, in 

 lieu of reeds ; more extensively for litter, and subsequently for 

 manure. Horses are stated to eat it greedily, and for all these 

 purposes it is regularly mown at the end of September, at which 

 time large quantities may be seen lying on the shore to dry, 

 previous to carting. Hardly a single accessible patch, either on 

 the upper or lower station, is suffered to remain uncut, so that it is 

 a plant of real economical utility. I cannot learn that it is known 

 amongst the inhabitants by any other name than that of Sedge." 



It will be understood from the foregoing that Bromfield 

 suspected that the plant «waB a colonist, and in a later article 

 (Phylologist, 1850, vol. iii., p. 1095-1908), he says :— " Although 

 unable to ascertain with any precision the date of its introduction 

 to this country, I cannot persuade myself that this fine grass is 

 aboriginal in this county. My objections to receive it as a strictly 

 indigenous grass are, first, its limitation in Europe to a couple of 

 stations on the western coasts, both sea-ports having constant 

 communication with America, where it is very abundant. 

 Secondly, the weight of local evidence goes to prove that the 

 many-spiked cord-grass was unknown at Southampton within the 

 memory of persons now living, and although the evidence I have 

 been able to collect be sufficiently confused and contradictory to 

 show that very little is known about the origin of this grass with 

 certainty, it is not so weak that we can safely set it aside in a case 

 so open to suspicion as the one before us." 



In 1850 Bromfield still only knew of the Itchen station in 

 Southampton Water, and in the eighth edition of Babington's 



Manual, 1881, no other locality is given, though others may have 

 been on record elsewhere. But from the first edition of 

 fownsend's " Flora," 1883, we learn that it was then abundant 

 from Hythe to Eling, on the Hamble and at Hill Head. 



The following summary of the distribution of Spartina in 

 Hampshire is extracted from Townsend's " Flora of Hampshire," 

 ^nd edition, 1901, p. 479 ; the wider distribution is derived from 

 various authorities. 



S. stricta; shore at Exbury in plenty ; along the Yare,near the 

 snore at Norton, Yarmouth, Newtown, &c. (Isle of Wight) 

 abundantly; Hythe; banks of Southampton river, plentiful; 

 itcfcen ferry ; Southton ; about Portsmouth, abundant ; Hayling 

 Island ; coast near Warblington church. 



Distribution in the United Kingdom.— Devon, Hampshire, 



Sussex, Kent, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Lincoln. 



Distribution beyond the United Kingdom.— Coast of 



Europe, from Holland to Gibraltar, and in the Adriatic ; South 

 the Pacific 1 * America ' coma *on °o the Atlantic coast, rare on 



