136 THE GENERA AND THEIR SPECIES. 



slightly smaller than outer, narrow, edges fringed, base with 

 a bristle. Anthers changing from purple to pink. 



Variety — 

 P. baltica Spike large and interrupted ; glumes 



lanceolate and acuminate. 



The Marram is as often known as Ammophila arenaria, but 

 whether Ammophila or Psamma, it is the only representative of 

 its genus, unless P. baltica be given specific rank, Known and 

 protected for centuries as a sand-binder, its long, pale brown 

 seed is still sown. The way in which its thick network of rhizomes 

 spreads among loose blown sand and forms it into ridges dense 

 enough to withstand the washing of the waves, can only be 

 realised by those who have seen it. Like a few other grasses, its 

 leaf-blades undergo a complete reversal at their base, so that 

 the under side becomes the upper side, shown by the stomata 

 being on the original upper side as in Milium. 



Sesleria. Plate xxxiii. FESTUCEjZE. 



ioo. ccevulea 18 in. Blue Moor Grass. Spike imbricated, 

 bluish. 

 Limestone districts of Northern Britain and the north and 



west of Ireland ; ranging throughout Europe. May and June. 



Root perennial, densely tufted, fibres long, strong, and deep. 



Stem simple, smooth, slender, bare, 

 leafy at base, nodes near base, light 

 green. Leaves linear, firm, spread- 

 ing or curving, single-ribbed, keeled, 

 keel and edges rough, radical 

 leaves narrow, stem leaves broader, 

 smooth below, rough above, mucro- 

 nate. Sheaths short, almost entire, 

 compressed, covering the nodes ; 

 ligule small or absent. Spike 

 ovoid, erect, about half an inch 



Sesleria cxrulea. in len g th > ^ 0S ^ blulsh ' S P ike * 



spikeiet. For Floret see P . 51. lets clustered, imbricated, florets 



