EEBDS. dZV 



Seeds Is the fabled plant into which Syrinx turned when 

 she fled from Pan, and of which he made his instrument of 

 music. 



" He filled his arms with Reeds new rising on the place; 

 And while he sighs his ill success to find, 

 The tender canes were shaken by the wind, 

 And breathed a mournful air unheard before, 

 That much surprising Pan, yet pleased him more. 

 He formed the Reeds proportioned as they are, 

 Unequal in their length, and waxed with care ; 

 They still retain the name of his ungrateful fair." 



The Common Eeed is as likely as any to be the transformed 

 heroine of the story, as it inhabits the margins of rivers. It is 

 a handsome plant with five florets to the spike, and a loose 

 panicle. I have it from my favourite pond at Hill Deverill, 

 where it grows above six feet in height. The tenant who farms 

 the adjacent land mows these Eeeds from a boat, and sells 

 them for thatching purposes (Arundo phragmites). 



The Wood Reed (A. epijegos), is a smaller plant, with an 

 erect close panicle and long awns. 



The Small Eeed (A. calamagrostis), has slender grassy leaves, 

 and a loose panicle. Both these species inhabit woods. 



The Close Eeed (A. stricta), is a highland species ; it has 

 only one flower in a spikelet. 



The Cypress Eeed (A. donax), is a foreign member of this 

 group ; it was early used for walking-sticks, as G-erarde tells us, 

 " This great sort of Eeeds or Canes hath no particular descrip- 

 tion to answer your expectations ; for that as yet there is not 

 any man which hath written thereof, especially the manner of 

 growing them, so that it shall suffice that ye do know that this 

 great Cane is used, especially in Constantinople and there- 

 abouts, of aged and wealthy citizens, and also noblemen and 

 such great personages, to make their walking-staves of, carving 

 them at the top with sundry scutcheons and pretty toies and 

 imagerie for the beautifying of them." 



The allied family, that of the Sea Eeed (Ammophila arun- 

 dinacea), has one important British specimen ; it has but one 



