GASTRIDIUM. 



157 



sheaths ; leaves rough, flat, acute ; sheaths slightly swelling, 

 generally smooth, uppermost one longer than its leaf; ligule 

 long, white, torn ; panicle compound, close, spike-shaped, 

 pale green, from one to four inches long; branches arranged 

 in clusters of three or four; spikelets numerous, erect, 

 crowded ; outer glumes unequal in length, pointed, the 

 base tumid, smooth, and polished, the keels green, strongly 

 toothed on the upper part ; flowering glume only one-third 

 the length of the outer ones, broad, five-ribbed, thin, often 

 hairy, jagged at the summit, sometimes furnished with an 

 awn arising from near its apex, but as often without it ; 

 awn slender, rough, twice as long as its glume ; palea a 

 little shorter, notched at the summit ; styles two, distinct ; 

 stigmas feathery ; anthers notched at each end ; the two 

 scales are acute ; seed invested by the hardened flowering 

 glume and palea. 



An erect annual grass, growing from half to three- 

 fourths of a foot high ; the 

 panicle, though spike-like, 

 is not stiff in form, and its 

 pale green colour and silvery 

 lustre makes it very attrac- 

 tive. This lustre is owing 

 to the polished swollen bases 

 of the outer glumes which 

 catch the rays of light as 

 so many green glass beads 

 might do. It grows in fields 

 and waste places, preferring 

 such as have been inundated, 

 and being especially partial 

 to the neighbourhood of the 

 sea. All along the south coast of England, and part 

 of the coast of Wales, the Awned Nitgrass is pretty 



