170 GRASSES OF BRITAIN. 



Spabtina STRICTA. 



Twin-spiked Cord-Grass. 

 Plate LXXIV. 



Specific Characters. — Glumes hairy. Outer glume more than 

 half the length of the inner. Inner palea longer than the glumes. 



Description. — Root perennial, with strong creeping fibres. Stem 

 smooth, hollow, striated, sheathed to the summit, from ten to twenty 

 inches high, bearing numerous leaves with smooth, striated sheaths ; 

 the upper sheath longer than its leaf. Ligule very short, obtuse, 

 ragged, about five times as broad as long. Joints numerous, all co- 

 vered by the sheaths. Leaves mostly involute, smooth, pointed, and 

 rigid, easily separate from their sheaths. Iiiflorescence of two or three 

 spikes, rarely of only one ; the rachis angular, smooth, bearing usually 

 about eight or nine sessile spikelets, arranged alternately on one side 

 of the rachis. Spikelets laterally compressed, composed of two glumes 

 and one floret. Glumes very unequal, hairy, without lateral ribs, the 

 outer glume much the smaller. Floret of two palese of unequal 

 lengths, the outer palea the shorter, about the length of the large 

 glume, hairy and without lateral ribs ; the inner palea longer than 

 the outer, with two delicate ribs not fringed. Stamens three. Styles 

 partly united. Stigmas feathery. Anthers erect, linear, entire at the 

 top, cloven at the base. Filaments long and slender. 



Obs. — Spartina stricta is distinguished from Spartina alterniflora 

 in the glumes being distinctly hairy. Large glume without lateral 

 ribs, and one -third longer than the small glume. Outer palea hairy, 

 without lateral ribs. Inner palea longer than the large glume (see 

 Fig. 1); — whereas in Spartina alterniflora the glumes are not hairy 

 except on the keel of the large glume. Large glume five-ribbed, and 

 more than twice the length of the small glume. Outer palea three- 

 ribbed and not hairy. Liner palea shorter than the large glume. 



Spartina stricta, Kunth, Koch, Smith, Hooker, Lind., Bab. Dactylis stricta, Linn. 

 Eng. Bot., Knapp, With. 



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