procuring and examining for the first time, 
specimens of Spartina stricta, which onthe 
authority of Botanists’ Guide, and other 
more recent publications,! as well as from 
private information, I was led to expect on 
- the banks of the Southampton Water. 
— On the spot indicated to me by letter, 
namely, near the Itchen Ferry, I found no 
traces of this grass,? and imagined the ne- 
cessary alterations, then in progress for 
effecting a steam communication between 
the opposite shores, might have caused its 
extirpation, when a few days afterwards 
(August 8th), I discovered on the flat and 
muddy shore of the Itchen river, consider- 
ably above the Ferry, and especially about 
. the Belvidere ship-yard,? within high wa- 
ter-mark, large patches, of a Spartina in- 
deed, but one which struck me at the first 
view as differing materially from such fi- 
gures and descriptions of Sp. stricta as I 
had at the time an opportunity of consult- 
ing; for with this last I was then unac- 
quainted, either in the living or dried state. 
One of the most striking points of dissimi- 
E larity, and which (if the present species 
be regarded by any as a mere variety, or 
even permanent race of Sp. stricta) will 
_ Tender an alteration in the specific defini- 
; tion of this latter indispensable, is the 
multiplicity of its spikes, which from the 
amount of two, or more rarely three,* 
S|." =o 15 eel 
! Amongst oth h : 
H. C. Watson. ers, the valuable little work of Mr. 
2 Th ` 
P D true Sp. stricta does not grow by the Ferry at 
Some reason or other u i ing i 
nemployed, lies rotting in a 
complete field of our new Spartina. s 
* Smith 
marks ig inbi "Wei — Wosawes re- 
which he exami: - J T 
ned on the Suffolk r 
šerved more than uffolk coast, he never ob 
is not uncommon, th 
: 2t : 
quent than that with two, ough always much less fre 
A DESCRIPTION OF SPARTINA ALTERNIFLORA. 
255 
are here increased to four (the minimum), 
six, eight, ten, or even thirteen, in one 
te panicle, or pound spik 
Nor was I less struck by the much 
greater size and height of the new plant, 
as compared with the ordinary stricta, 
which is always described as not exceeding 
ten, twelve, or twenty inches,’ whereas the 
Southampton species rises to two feet and 
a half commonly, and not unfrequently to 
above a yard. This last is likewise re- 
markable for the stout reed-like habit of 
its very upright culms, only so slightly as- 
cending-at the base as to allow room suffi- 
cient for the growth of the young sucker, 
which is usually to be seen shooting up 
close to the parent stem. The culms much 
surpass an ordinary reed in thickness, and 
where there are no young progeny at their 
origin, mostly rise from the root in a per- 
fectly vertical direction, without any devi- 
ation from the perpendicular in the upper 
part; whereas in all the specimens of Sp. 
stricta I have since seen and gathered, the 
stems are ascending, and are more or less 
bent in the form of a bow, throughout their 
entire length, the spike itself making a 
portion, in many cases, of the arc so de- 
scribed. Moreover, the leaves in Spartina 
stricta appear very rarely to equal, and 
nevertoexceed, the flower-spikesinlength;® 
whereas my friend Mr. Babington justly 
observed to me, that the excessive length of 
the leaves in the Itchen river plant, which 
are never materially shorter than the spikes, 
and commonly overtop them several inches, 
is one of its most distinguishing character- 
istics, and which, in conjunction with the 
straw-like hue of its tall and very erect 
culms, gives to extensive masses of this 
grass the aspect of fields of half-ripe wheat; 
an appearance to which the ear-like aggre- 
gate of close-pressed spikes contributes 
not a little. 
Another peculiarity in our new plant, is 
close 
, 
and the absence of that toughness and rigidity 
ascribed (and I think greatly over-rated) 
to Sp. stricta, as it may be plucked with 
" TAS E and 
a 
5 Our Southamp 
is often much ander that height. 
6 Excepting in immature specimens, before the 
spikes have attained their full dimensions. 
