172 GRASSES OF BRITAIN. 



Spartina ALTERNIFLORA. 



Many-Spiked Coi'd- Grass. 

 Plate LXXV. 



Specific Characters. — Outer glume not half the length of the in- 

 ner. Inner palea shorter than the large glume. 



Description. — Root perennial, creeping, with very long runners. 

 Stem smooth, hollow, striated, sheathed to the summit, from eighteen 

 inches to two feet high, bearing numerous leaves with smooth striat- 

 ed sheaths, clothed for some distance upwards with withered persist- 

 ent leaves of earlier growth ; the upper sheath longer than its leaf. 

 TAgule very short, obtuse, jagged or fringed, about five times as 

 broad as long. Joints numerous, all covered by the sheaths. Leaves 

 often a foot or more in length, six to ten lines in breadth, alternate, 

 rather rigid and erect, flat to within an inch or two of their points, 

 where the edges are involute ; the uppermost leaf extending beyond 

 the spikes, excepting in young immature specimens ; all the leaves 

 are persistent and continuous with their sheaths. Inflorescence of 

 four to thirteen spikes, forming a close, compact, spike-like panicle, 

 bearing several erect, sessile spikelets, arranged alternately on one 

 side of the smooth, angular rachis. Rachis terminating into a flexu- 

 ose av/n-like point. Spikelets laterally compressed, of a lanceolate 

 form, composed of two glumes and one floret. Glumes very un- 

 equal, the outer glume much the smaller, membranous, lanceolate, 

 about one-third the length of the inner glume ; inner glume consi- 

 derably the larger, of a lanceolate form, five-ribbed, the middle or 

 keel fringed with small bristle-like hairs, pointing upwards ; no hairs 

 on any other part of the glumes. Floret of two palese, shorter than 

 the glumes ; outer palea three-ribbed, acute, not hairy ; inner palea 

 the longer, very thin, acute, margins not fringed. Stamens three. 

 Filaments capillary, not as long as the floret. Anthers erect, linear, 

 entire at the top, cloven at the base. Styles partly united. Stigmas 

 feathery. 



Obs. — Spartina alternijlora is distinguished from Spartina stricta 



Sparli/iu aUcrniflora, Kunth, Hooker, Bab., Engl. Bot., Sup. 



