a te. 
es. 
47 
POLYPOGON LITTORALIS. 
SmitH. Hooxrer. Linpury. Basineron. Parnetn. Kunra. Kocu. 
PLATE XIV.—B. 
Agrostis littoralis, J. HE. Smiru. Wiruerine. 
a: ee Kwapr. Dickson. 
The Perennial Beard-Grass. 
Polypogon—Many—A beard, (from the Greek.) | Littoralis—Sea-shore. 
A VERY rare species, growing in salt marshes. 
Found in Norfolk, near Cley; in Essex, on the coast; Hamp- 
shire, near Porchester; and Kent, near the Woolwich powder- 
magazine; and in Germany. 
Stem upright, circular, smooth, carrying seven or eight flat, 
roughish, acute leaves, with striated yet smooth sheaths, the 
uppermost one considerably longer than its leaf, and its ligule 
bold, acute, and about twice as long as it is broad. Joints 
smooth. Inflorescence compound panicled, the rachis and 
branches being rough with minute teeth. Spikelets numerous, 
laterally compressed, small, and composed of two equal-sized, 
linear, obtuse, hirsute glumes, and one floret of a little above 
half the length of the glumes. Glumes destitute of lateral ribs, 
dentate on the keel, and having a long rough awn of the 
same length as the glumes, arising just beneath the apex. Foret 
consisting of two pale, the exterior one destitute of lateral ribs, 
having a slender awn commencing slightly beneath the apex. 
Inner palea shorter, thin, pellucid, and having entire margins. 
Stamens two; styles two; scales two. Stigmas feathery. Length 
