GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 157 



root perennial, creeping, woody, leaves pale green, sheaths open, ligule wanting. Flowers in 

 August and September. 



Still another species, sometimes called hair grass, (Muhlenlergia capittaris,) is sometimes, 

 though not often, found on sandy soils. 



WilldeilOW s Muhlenbergia, (Muhlenlergia Willdenovii^ is also not uncommon in 

 rocky woods, growing about three feet high, with a slender, simple stem, contracted panicle, 

 loosely flowered, glumes sharp-pointed, half as long as lower palea, which has an awn from 

 three to four times the length of the spikelet. 



None of the grasses of this American genus are of great value as agricultural grasses, 

 except as they add considerably to the mass of living verdure which clothes our low lands. 



Blue Joint Grass, (Calamagrostis canadensis.} The general characteristics are, one- 

 flowered spikelets, open panicle, contracted or spiked; glumes keeled, about equal to the 

 paleaB, around which, at the base, is a thick tuft of white bristly hairs; lower palea generally 

 with a slender awn on the back. 



Specific description: Stems three to five feet high, grayish, leaves flat, panicle often 

 purplish, the glumes acute, lanceolate, lower palea not longer than the very fine hairs bearing 

 an extremely delicate awn below the middle, nearly equal to the hairs. Flowers in July. 

 The blue joint grass is very common on low grounds. It is generally considered a valuable 

 grass. It is eaten greedily by stock in the winter, and is thought by some to be as nutritious 

 as timothy. 



The GlailCOllS Small Reed , (Calamagrostis coarctata, ) is also somewhat common in 

 our wet meadows, open swamps, and along low river banks. Its stems are from three to five 

 feet high, seed hairy, crowned with a bearded tuft ; lower palea shorter than the taper-pointed 

 tips of the lanceolate glumes, almost twice the length of the hairs, with a rigid, short awn 

 above the middle. 



Beach Grass, Sea-Sand Reed, Mat Grass, (Ammophila arundmacea,) grows 

 to a height of two or three feet, with a rigid culm, from stout roots running often to the dis 

 tance of twenty or thirty feet ; leaves wide, rather short, of a sea-green color ; panicle con 

 tracted into a close dense spike, from six to twelve inches long, nearly white. It is found in 

 the sands of the sea-shore, where its thick, strong, creeping, perennial roots, with many tubera 

 the size of a pea, prevent the drifting of the sand from the action of the winds and waves, 

 thus forming a barrier against the encroachments of the sea. 



This grass is very generally diffitsed on sea-coasts over the world, and is found inland on 

 the shores of Lake Superior. It has also been cultivated by way of experiment, and with 

 success, on the sands at Lowell, and still farther up on the banks of the Merrimack River. 

 Though not cultivated for agricultural purposes, it is of great value in protecting sandy 

 beaches. It is preserved in England and Scotland by act of Parliament. Flowers in 

 August. 



The town of Provincetown, once called Cape Cod, and its harbor, still called the harbor 

 of Cape Cod, one of the best and most important in the United States, sufficient in depth 

 for ships of the largest size, and in extent, to anchor three thousand vessels at once, owe 

 their preservation to this grass. To an inhabitant of an inland country it is difficult to con 

 ceive the extent and the violence with which the sands at the extremity of Cape Cod are 

 thrown up from the depths of the sea, and left on the beach in thousands of tons by every 

 driving storm. These sand-hills, when dried by the sun, are hurled by the winds into the 

 harbor and upon the town. A correspondent at Provincetown says : &quot; Beach grass is said 

 to have been cultivated here as early as 1812. Before that time, when the sand drifted down 

 upon dwelling-houses, as it did whenever the beach was broken, to save them from burial, 

 Lhe only resort was to wheeling it off with barrows. Thus tons were removed every year 



