136 TllIANDRIA— DIGYNIA. Cynosurus. 



In muddy salt-marshes, on the eastern coast. 



About the mouths of rivers in Kent and Essex, found by Merret, 

 Buddie, and Sherard. Dillenius. Plentiful in the isle of Shepey. 

 Bishop of Carlisle. At Aldborough, Suffolk. Mr. Woodward and 

 Mr. Davy. 



Perennial. August. 



Root creeping, with strong fibres. Whole plant hard, tough and 

 rigid. Stems 10 — 20 inches high, several together, simple, 

 ascending, round, leafy from top to bottom, smooth, jointed. 

 Leaves numerous, straight, spreading, taper-pointed, keeled, 

 channelled, striated, of a dull green, smooth ; involute when 

 dry. Sheaths striated, smooth, very long, investing each other 

 far above their respective knots ; their lower part remaining of 

 a fibrous spongy texture, after the upper part and its leaf are 

 gone. Stipula short and jagged. Spikes 2, rarely 3, rising just 

 above the short uppermost leaf, erect, straight, dose together. 

 Common stalk simple, angular, with a linear hollow to receive 

 each spikelet, but not jointed. Spikelets imbricated, in 2 rows, 

 lateral, lanceolate, their glumes all more or less downy or silky. 

 Outer valve of the calyx narrow, acute ; inner much broader 

 and longer ; membranous and cloven at the top, with a short, 

 thick, horny, intermediate point. Floret solitary. Valves of the 

 cor. less downy, acute, entire, finely striated. Nect. none, as 

 Schrader also observes, Germen lanceolate. Styles combined 

 about 3 fourths of their length. Stigmas slender, prominent. 



50. CYNOSURUS. Dog's-tail-grass. 



Linn. Gen. 36. Juss. 31. Fl. Br.lM. Lam. t. 47. Go'rtn. t. 1 . 



Spikelets in pairs ; one entirely neuter, of numerous, two- 

 ranked, lanceolate, concave, pointed or awned, empty 

 glumes ; the other parallel to it, of several ^or^-^s. Cal. of 

 2 equal, lanceolate, membranous, concave, single-ribbed, 

 keeled, taper-pointed, awned valves, containing two or 

 three ^evkct Jlorets, the first sessile, the rest stalked, with 

 an occasional rudiment of more. Cor. wanting in the neu- 

 ter spikelet; in the perfect one of 2 unequal lanceolate 

 valves ; the outermost concave, keeled, more or less awned 

 at the summit, the awn straight ; inner two-ribbed, ui- 

 flexed at the. edges, cloven at the point, awnless. Nect. of 

 2 acute scales. Filam. capillary, shorter than the glumes. 

 Anth. linear, cloven at each end. Germen elliptical. Styles 

 very short, distinct. Stigmas long, cylindrical, feathery. 

 Seed loose, invested with the unchanged corolla, elliptic- 

 oblong, with a furrow along the upper side. 



The curolla is certainly not, as Schrader defines it, united 



