35 



PHLEUM ARENAEIUM. 



LiNNiEus. Smith. Hookee. Lindlet. Koch. Geevillb. Paenell. 



SCHEADEK. OeDEE. EhEHAET. 



PLATE X. B. 



Phalaris arenaria, Knapp. Hudson. Willdenow. 



The Sea Cafs-tail Grass. 



Plileum — Beed Mace. Arenarium — Sea-shore. 



The Phleum arenarium is almost exclusively a sea-side Grass, 

 growing in loose sand. It is to be met with on the coasts of 

 Devonshire, Somersetshire, Sussex, Kent, Suffolk, Norfolk, 

 Cheshire, Durham, and Northumberland. Also in Denbigh and 

 Fifeshire; indeed it is by no means uncommon in Scotland, 

 although local in Ireland. On the continent it is met with in 

 various places in southern Europe. Inland it is recorded as 

 growing on Swaffham and Newmarket Heaths. 



The leaves being harsh it is not an agricultural Grass. 



Root annual, consisting of numerous long simple fibres. Stem 

 circular, smooth, and mostly having a purple tinge on the 

 upper portion; joints naked. The stem bears four or five leaves, 

 whose sheaths are slightly tumid, smooth, and striated, the 

 uppermost sheath being above double the length of its leaf. 

 Leaves rough both above and below, brief and broad. Inflor- 

 escence simple panicled, the panicle being obovate-cylindrical in 

 form, and upright in habit. Spikelets oval in shape, and numerous, 

 consisting of one floret of one-third the length of the calyx, 

 and awnless. Calyx composed of a couple of equal-sized mem- 

 branous glumes, which are lanceolate in form. Upper portion 



H 



