CANADIAN LYME GRASS. 119 



stamens three ; stems stout, from two to three feet high ; 

 leaves broad and rough. ■ Grows from two to three feet 

 high, and flowers in July and August. Of no special 

 value as an agricultural grass. Found from New Eng- 

 land to Illinois and Wisconsin. 



Canadian Lyme Grass {Elymus Canadensis). — Spike 

 rather loose, and curving at the extremity ; spikelets 

 mostly in pairs of three to five, long-awned, rough, 

 hairy flowers ; the lance-awl-shaped glumes, tipped with 

 shorter awns ; stem three to four feet high, root creep- 

 ing; leaves broad, flat, linear; sheaths smooth, and ligule 

 short. Flowers in August. It is common on the banks 

 of rivers. 



Slender Hairy Lyme Grass {Elymus striatus) is 

 sometimes found in rocky woods and on the banks of 

 streams, as the most slender and smallest-flowered spe- 

 cies of this genus. It flowers in July. Rare, and of 

 little value for agricultural purposes. 



Soft Lyme Grass {Elymus mollis) rises three feet 

 high, on the shores of the northern lakes, Superior, 

 Huron, and in higher latitudes. It has a thick, erect 

 spike, with two or three spikelets at each joint, from 

 five to eight flowered. 



Upright Sea Lyme Grass {Elymus arenarius). — 

 This grass, which much resembles beach grass, grows 

 from two to five feet high, with a perennial, long, creep- 

 ing root ; stem erect, round, smooth ; leaves long, nar- 

 row, hard, grayish, pointed, grooved, rolled in, smooth 

 behind and rough on the inner surface. It flowers in 

 July. Difiers from the common beach grass in having 

 a short, obtuse ligule, and spikelets without footstalks, 

 of three or four florets, while beach grass has a long 

 and pointed ligule, and spikelets with footstalks, and 

 of only one floret. 



