194 BRITISH GRASSES. 



creeping root and long runners, a stem all covered with 

 sheaths, from eighteen inches to two feet high, many- 

 withered old leaves mingling with those of this year's 

 growth ; numerous joints, the uppermost leaf overtop- 

 ping the spikes, root-leaves a foot long ; spikes several, 

 never less than four, and sometimes amounting to a 

 dozen on one stem ; many spikelets on each of these 

 spikes arranged alternately on the rachis, but all facing 

 one way ; smooth, angular rachis, terminating in a horn- 

 like point; outer glumes very unequal, the inner the 

 largest, the keel fringed with bristly hairs; flowering 

 glume three-ribbed, acute, smooth ; palea longer than 

 glume, thin, acute; styles partly united. It differs 

 mainly from the normal form in the outer glumes being 

 smooth except on the keel. 



Its especial British habitat is on the mud-banks about 

 the Southampton rivers. It is a coarse strong grass, 

 reed-like, and with foetid odour. Horses and pigs like 

 it. It is very abundant in North America, and is used 

 for thatching. Mr. Bentham asserts, from his experience 

 of American specimens, that it passes gradually into the 

 normal form. It flowers in August. 



Tribe VII. HORDEINE^]. 



Genus XXIII. LEPTURUS. 



Gen. Char. Spikelets one- or two-flowered, placed on al- 

 ternate sides of a simple erect spikes ; inflorescence spiked. 



1. Lepturus incurvatus, Trin. Curved Lepturus. 



(Bottboellia^ Eng. Bot.) 

 Boot annual, fibrous ; stems cylindrical, smooth, glossy, 



