1100 



In our Hampshire waters the Leersia usually grows quite erect, 

 whether the culms be few or, as they more frequently are, numerous 

 from the same root, but occasionally some of the culms become 

 reclining, decumbent or even procumbent, or at least very strongly 

 geniculate, especially when the plant is growing from a projecting 

 portion of the bank. I have never seen the Leersia in England as an 

 inhabitant of simply marshy places, as in other countries, but always 

 in or closely contiguous to water, usually with the bases of the culms 

 immersed, but creeping now and then for a foot or two upon the wet 

 soil of the banks, amongst other aquatic grasses. The power the 

 leaves and sheaths possess of cutting the hands of those who gather 

 the plant would seem to be overrated ; that it is capable of doing so 

 1 can assert from personal experience, but the occasional slight inci- 

 sions caused by its asperity scarcely go deeper than the cuticle, at 

 least with myself; in some of its rougher states, however, it might 

 prove more formidable. The Leersia is one of the very few British 

 grasses that are branched, and the only one that bears two, three or 

 even four panicles on the same culm from the axils of the lower 

 leaves, in both which characters it recedes from most Gramina of the 

 temperate zone, and assimilates to those of tropical regions. The re- 

 semblance in structure, habit, colour and general aspect of this singu- 

 lar grass to the awnless variety of the cultivated rice is indeed very 

 remarkable. Another feature worthy of notice in our Leersia is the 

 extreme tendency in the leaves to become involute on being gathered, 

 which happens so rapidly that a few minutes suffice for them to roll 

 up completely into a cylinder; the same effect follows almost instan- 

 taneously if the leaves be drawn through the fingers or handled in any 

 way. This result can be prevented by always leaving the root 

 attached to specimens intended for preservation, for if put with a mass 

 of roots thoroughly saturated but not dripping with water, into a closed 

 tin collecting-box, the leaves will retain their flatness perfectly for two 

 or three days, and when laid out, the roots should still be left attached, 

 as, if severed, the leaves will instantly begin to curl up when placed 

 in contact with the drying paper, and even when the above precaution 

 is observed, the specimens must be handled as little as possible, and 

 subjected to pressure without delay. The Leersia is indeed a most 

 intractable plant for the herbarium, where specimens are desired that 

 shall really exhibit the character of the grass, not only from the above- 

 mentioned tendency in the leaves to curl up, but from the size, length 

 and branching of the larger examples, and particularly from bearing 

 two or more panicles on one stem, which prevents its being folded or 



