179 



Fig. 173. SPARTINA CYNOSUROIDES (Linn.; Willd. Enum. 80. 1809. {Dac- 

 t>/Usc>/nosuroidesLmn. Sp. PI. 71. 17.53. ) CORD-GRASS.— A stout, erect perennial 

 6-18 dm. (20-6°) high, with unbranched, .smooth culms from strong, scaly creep- 

 ing rootstocks, long, tough leaf-blades, and five to twenty spikes, forming a 

 terminal panicle. Sheaths crowded below; leaf-blades 8 dm. (1°) long or more, 

 6-14 mm. (3"-7") wide, scabrous on the margins, attenuate. Spikelets (a, b) 12-14 

 mm. (6"-7") long; outer glumes awn-pointed, strongly hispid on the keel, the 

 second much exceeding the first; flowering glumes {c) equaling the fir.st glume, 

 the scabrous mid-nerve terminating just below the 2-toothed or emarginate 

 apex. Palea often exceeding the glume.— River banks and lake shores, also 

 brackish coast marshes. Maine and Nova Scotia to Assiniboia and Oregon, 

 south to New Jersey, western Tennessee, Texas, and Colorado. July to October. 



When cut early this grass makes a fair but coarse hay, and it has been used 

 successfully in the manufacture of twine and paper. The strong, creeping 

 rootstocks adapt it for binding loose sands and river banks, and in the West it 

 is used for thatch. 



