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POLYPOGON. 147 



2. Poiypogon iittoralis, Sw. Perennial Beard- 

 Grass, 



Root perennial, creeping extensively ; stems decumbent 

 at the base, thin, bent, and finally ascending, a little 

 branched, round, smooth, hollow, from six to twelve inches 

 high ; joints smooth ; leaves flat, acute, roughish on both 

 surfaces, slightly glaucous ; sheaths smooth, striated, seven 

 or eight on each stem, the uppermost one longer than its 

 leaf ; ligule of upper leaf much longer than broad, acute, 

 prominent ; panicle compound, purplish, much resembling 

 that of P. monspeliensis, except that the branches are rather 

 further removed and form interruptions in the spike-like 

 form ; rachis and its branches rough ; spikelets small, nu- 

 merous, flattened at the side ; outer glumes narrow, equal, 

 hairy, blunt, toothed at the keels, but not ribbed, having a 

 long rough awn rising from near the apex of the keel ; awns 

 not nearly so long as in the last species, nor so rough ; 

 flowering glume rather more than half the length of the 

 outer ones, cloven at the summit and bearing a long awn 

 between the teeth of the apex, which extends beyond the 

 points of the outer glumes ; palea shorter, thin, transparent, 

 cloven at the summit, entire at the margins, awnless ; styles 

 distinct ; scales pointed. 



Mr. Bentham considers this plant intermediate be- 

 tween Agrostis and Poiypogon ; it is distinguished from 

 the last species by the awns being the same length as 

 the outer glumes, while that of the flowering glume is 

 longer ; in P. monspeliensis this order is reversed, the 

 awns of the flowering glumes being shorter than those 

 of the outer ones. 



The author of c English Botany * tells us that this 

 grass was first discovered in August, 1777, by the Rev. 

 H. Bryant, in salt-marshes on the north coast of Norfolk, 



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