LYME GRASS 221 



on the south and east coast make a characteristic feature of coastal 

 botanical formations, growing- on sandy coasts, and invading the inland 

 districts in a few places where dunes abound. 



The stems are prostrate, afterwards erect, smooth, rounded, with 

 numerous leaves. The leaves are short, flat, bluish-green, rough, with 

 downy lower sheaths, the upper ones swollen. The ligule is very 

 short. 



The flowers are in an erect spike, with 3 spreading spikelets, rigid, 

 with all the glumes rough, and the inner glume of the middle spikelet 

 is egg-shaped, the others are bristle-like, the lateral florets being 

 lanceolate and imperfect. The spike is erect and thick. 



The plant is i ft. in height. Flowers are in bloom in June and 

 July. Squirrel Tail Grass is an annual, propagated by seeds. 



It is anemophilous, and pollinated, like Gommon Wall Barley, by 

 the wind. The spikelets are in groups of 3 on the rachis, and form a 

 dense spike. Each is i -flowered when perfect, but the central or two 

 lateral flowers are often male or sterile. 



The fruit is light, and adapted for wind dispersal. Squirrel Tail 

 Grass is a salt-lover, and grows best in saline soil, being also a 

 sand plant and addicted to sand soil. 



This plant is galled by Cecidomyia destructor, Diplosis flava, and 

 another fly, Oscinia tritici. 



The second Latin name refers to its maritime habitat, and the 

 generic name is the Latin for barley. 



This grass is called Squirrel Tail Grass and Squirrel Tail. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



346. Hordeum maritimum, Huds. Stem and leaves as in 345, 

 glumes asperous, inner of lateral florets subovate, spike erect, nearly 

 round. 



Lyme Grass (Elymus arenarius, L.) 



Lyme Grass is not found in any early plant beds. It is distributed 

 in Europe, N. Asia, and N. America in the Temperate Zone. In 

 Great Britain it is found in Somerset, Dorset, S. Hants, Sussex, 

 E. Suffolk, Norfolk. Merioneth, Carnarvon, Anglesea, N. Lines, 

 S. Lanes, S.E. Yorks, N.E. Yorks, Durham, Northumberland, 

 Cheviotland, Cumberland, Ayr, Hadclington, Fife, Kincardine, Aber- 

 deen, Banff, Elgin, Easterness, Westerness, Clyde Is., Cantire, 

 N. Ebudes, \Y. Ross, Sutherland, Caithness, Northern Isles. Erom 

 Essex and N. Wales it ranges to the Shetlands, and occurs in Ireland 

 and the Channel Islands. 



