158 BRITISH GRASSES. 



frequent. It is found throughout France, Germany, 

 Italy, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, Geeece, 

 North Africa, and the islands of the Mediterranean. 

 Not discovered in Scotland or Ireland. 



Sir J. E. Smith and many authers of note place this 

 grass in the Milium group, because of " the seed being 

 invested by the permanent hardened corolla," that is, by 

 the flowering glume and palea; but more recent writers 

 form it into a separate genus on account of the peculiar 

 swollen bases of the outer glumes. It has no agricul- 

 tural value. 





Genus XV. PSAMMA. 



Gen. Char. Panicle spike-like, cylindrical ; glumes stiff 

 like chaff; flowering glume awnless. 



Psamma arenaria, Beauv. Sea Maram, 



(Arundo arenaria, Eng. Bot. ; Ammophila arundinacea, 

 Brit. El.) (Maram, or Sea Matweed.) 



Eoot perennial, creeping, jointed, spreading itself to a 

 great extent ; stems stiff, round, smooth, articulated, shin- 

 ing, hard, leafy, about three feet high ; joints smooth ; leaves 

 rigid, turning inwards, sharply pointed, glaucous, smooth 

 on the under side, furrowed on the upper ; sheaths nervose, 

 smooth ; ligules long, lanceolate ; panicle erect, spike-like, 

 with short, erect, rough branches, three to five inches long ; 

 spikelets densely crowded, lanceolate, acute, containing one 

 floret ; outer glumes unequal, acute, narrow, not ribbed, 

 roughish on the upper part of the keels, the outer broadest, 

 eroded at the apex, and clasping the other ; flowering glume 

 five-ribbed, dorsal rib minutely toothed, terminating in a 

 short sealy point, several hairs at the base; palea the same 



