The Book of Grasses 



habitants of certain towns in Massachusetts were oWiged to 

 plant Marram Grass each April, or suffer the penalty of their 

 disobedience to law. It is said that the harbour of Provincetown, 

 Mass., owes its preservation to the Marram Grass committee 

 which was authorized to demand the cultivation of this grass 

 along the coast. 



Great has been the devastation caused by sand-storms on 

 coasts where there are no sand-binding grasses. Following the 

 thoughtless pulling up of Marram Grass on a shore of Scotland, 

 such a storm in the winter of 1769 was so destructive that apple 

 trees, it is said, were buried and only their highest branches left 

 above the surface of the drifts. 



The long leaves of Marram Grass, or Beach Grass, as it is often 

 called, are smooth on the outer surface, are finely ribbed within, 

 and become involute in drying. The inflorescence is a cylindrical, 

 spike-like panicle, composed of many one-flowered spikelets which 

 in bloom are fringed with white anthers. The grass may easily 

 be recognized, even from a distance, by the characteristic colour 

 of its leaves, so perfectly does the silver green accord with the 

 silver sands. 



Marram Grass. Beach Grass. Sea Sand-reed. Ammd- 

 phila arenaria (L.) Link. 



Perennial, from extensively creeping rootstocks. 

 Stem 2-4 ft. tall, stout, rigid, erect. Ligule a minute ring. Leaves 



6'-24' long, 2"-6" wide, gray-green, smooth on lower surface, ribbed 



and rough on upper surface, soon involute. 

 Spike-like Panicle 5'-i4' long, cylindrical, green, densely flowered, 



5"-9" in diameter. Spikelets i -flowered, ^"-6" long. Scales 3, 



compressed; outer scales about equal, acute; flowering scale nearly 



as long as empty scales and bearing a tuft of short hairs at the base; 



palet slightly shorter than flowering scale. Rachilla prolonged. 



Stamens 3, anthers white. 

 Sandy beaches along the coast. July to October. 

 New Brunswick to Virginia, also on the shores of the Great Lakes, and 



in California, 



WOOD REED-GRASS AND SLENDER WOOD 

 REED-GRASS 



Leafy stems of Wood Reed-grass arrest the attention before 

 the ample panicles are visible, for, although this grass does not 



128 



