160 BRITISH GRASSES. 



Norway, and the shores of the Mediterranean, it fulfils 

 the same beneficent office as on the shores of England, 

 and in America and the United States it is equally 

 useful. 



The flowers appear in July, the seed is ripe at the end 

 of August or beginning of September. 



Its appearance is too stiff to be attractive, but where 

 utility is so well attested, beauty can be dispensed with. 

 The inhabitants of Southport should have a special 

 affection for this plant, — the sand there is most trying 

 from its drifting propensities, and there is no doubt that 

 many of the sandbanks now stationary are only held to- 

 gether by the powers of the Sea Matweed. The ex- 

 tensive tracts of land about the Frith of Forth, now so 

 beautifully adorned by a large variety of maritime plants, 

 owe their first productive power to the interlacing roots 

 of this grass, and we could name similar effects arising 

 from the same cause of every shore around our islands. 



Still more must it be held in veneration on the low 

 Dutch coasts, where the high tides are wont to make 

 such terrible havoc with the adjacent cultivated land. 

 It is said that the Dutch have been most industrious 

 in sowing the seed of the Matweed and its coadjutor 

 the Lyme-grass, and have by this means materially 

 strengthened their sea-fences. The knowledge of the 

 great utility of these plants is a better protection to them 

 than even Acts of Parliament. 



Genus XVI. CALAMAGROSTIS. 



Gen. Char. Inflorescence panicled; spikelets one-flowered; 

 outer glumes nearly equal, keeled ; flowering glume thin, 

 short, and narrow, awned, a tuft of hairs at base. 



