GRASS FAMILY 



591 



4. H. marinum (Squirrel-tail Grass, Sea Barley). —Nearly allied 

 to the preceding but smaller and somewhat glaucous; spike 

 I — 2 in. long, erect, with shorter, more spreading awns, becoming 

 yellow-brown. — Pastures and banks near the sea in England. — 

 Fl. June, July. Annual. 



49. Elymus (Lyme-grass), of which E. arendrius (Sand Lyme- 

 grass) is the only British species, is a stiff, 

 glaucous grass, with a long, creeping root- 

 stock ; stems 2 — 6 feet high, stout, smooth ; 

 leaves stiff, broad, pointed ; spike some- 

 times rather dense, 3 — 12 in. long, with 

 the spikelets in rather distant pairs, or 3 

 together in the notches of the flexuous 

 rachis, each an inch long, imbricate, 

 adpressed, inserted with their broad sides 

 towards the rachis, 2 — 7-flowered, awnless ; 

 glumes lanceolate, stiff, generally downy, 

 very pointed. — Sandy sea-shores, chiefly in 

 the north. — Fl. July, August. Perennial, 



Division II. GYMNOSPERMS 



Having their seeds exposed, the carpels 

 being either open so as not to form an 

 ovary, or absent. They have thus no style 

 or stigma, the pollen-grains being carried 

 directly into the micropyle of the ovule. 

 This more lowly organised and, geologi- 

 cally speaking, more ancient Division of 

 Flowering Plants is represented at the 

 present day by far fewer forms than the 

 Angiosperms; but falls into three very 

 distinct classes, Conijerce, Cycaddcece, and 

 Gnetdcece, of which the first only is repre- 

 sented in Britain, the other two classes 

 being either tropical or sub-tropical. The 

 three classes comprise 5 Natural Orders, 

 46 genera, and 470 species. 



fiLYMUS ARENArIUS 



{Sand Lyme-grass). 



Class I. CONIFER.F: 



The largest of the three Classes of Gymnosperms, including 

 2 Natural Orders, 34 genera, and 350 species. They are trees 

 or shrubs, mostly evergreen, often reaching a large or, as in the 

 case of the Mammoth Tree and Redwood of California, a gigantic 



