TRIANDRIA— DIGYNIA. Spartina. 135 



rough at the keel. Florets 3 or 4, rarely solitary ; common 

 stalk smooth. Outer valve of the cor. 5-ribhed, rough at the 

 keel, with a short awn-like point ; inner fringed at the ribs. 

 ^nfh. pale fiolet, pendulous. 

 In shady places, orchards, &c., this is a harsh coarse grass, not 

 very acceptable to cattle j but when cultivated on dry open 

 land, its quality becomes excellent, and the crop of tufted radi- 

 cal leaves abundant. 



49. SPARTINA. Cord-grass. 



Schreb. Gen. 43. Muhlenb. Gram. 53. Beauv. Agr. 25. t. 7.f. 6. 

 Limnetis. Richard. — Nultall Gen. 38. 



Cal. single-flowered, of 2 unequal, compressed, lanceolate, 

 keeled, clasping valves ; the outer one sometimes smallest, 

 narrow and pointless ; sometimes largest, with a rough, 

 stz-aight, terminal awn; inner cloven at the summit, with 

 more or less of an intermediate tooth, or point. Cor. about 

 the length and shape of the cal. of 2 lanceolate, bluntish, 

 clasping, compressed, awniess valves, the innermost ra- 

 ther the longest. Nect. none. Filam. capillary, not so long 

 as the cor. Anth. erect, linear, entire at the top, cloven at 

 the base. Ger»2. elliptic-lanceolate. &_?/Ze5Combinedagreat 

 part of their whole length, separate at the top. Stigmas 

 feathery, slender, various in length. Seed oblong, com- 

 pressed, clothed with the unaltered corolla, but quite loose. 



Hard, rigid, smooth, perennial, maritime grasses, with com- 

 pound, close, unilateral spikes of numerous Jlotsoers. This 

 genus is closely allied to Dactylis, under which it has been 

 included by Linnaeus and most botanists ; but a compari- 

 son of their characters, given above, will prove them very 

 distinct. Schreber places Spartina in Triandria Mono- 

 gynia ; but a partial, or temporary, combination of the 

 2 styles of true Grasses is so common, and so various in 

 species of the same genus, that it is best not to take it too 

 strictl3^ There can be no reason to change the great 

 Schreber's original name for Limnetis. 



1. S. stricta. Twin-spiked Cord-grass. 



Spikes two or three, erect, with very smooth stalks. Glumes 

 downy. Outer valve of the calyx smallest. 



Dactylis stricta. Soland. in Ait. H. Kew. ed. 1 . ?'. 1 . 1 04. Willd. 



V. 1. 407. Ft. Br. 110. Engl. Bot. v. 6. t. 380. With. 149. t. 27. 



Knapp t. 63. 

 D. Cynosuroides. Huds. 43. Loefi. If. Hisp.Wri. 

 Spartum Essexianum,spica gcmina clausa. Dill, in Rati Sijn. 303. 



