14 



Not having obtained an English specimen, we have not a figure 

 of this grass, being compelled at present to postpone it, as well as 

 further description, to a probable supplementary number of our 



work. 



Genus 6. AMMOPHILA. Sea Eeed. 



Gen. Char. Inflorescence compact, spike-like. Spikelets with 

 two nearly equal keeled glumes, one-flowered. Flower with 

 silky hairs at the base ; palese two, the lower one shorter, with 

 a very short awn. 



The name, from the Greek ammos, sand, and^Mos, a lover, refers 

 to the habitat of the following species, the loose and shifting sands 

 of the sea-shore. The original of ammos being psammos, and the 

 term Ammophila having been bestowed upon a genus of Hymeno- 

 pterous insects, prior to its adoption by the botanist, the genus 

 before us is by some modern writers altered to Psamma. 



Ammophila artjndinacea. Sea Reed. Helme. Matweed. 

 Marram. Plate XII. 



Inflorescence spicate, fusiform. Glumes and palese acute. Basal 

 hairs one-third the length of the palese. 



Arundo arenaria, Linnoms. E. B. 520 ; ed. 2. 78. Calamagrostis 

 arenaria. Withering. Ammophila arenaria, Lindley. Ammo- 

 phila arundinacea, Hooker. Psamma arenaria, Beauvais, 

 Babington, S^c. 



Frequent upon the dry and loose sand by the sea-shore, among 

 which its creeping stems, rooting from every joint, rapidly extend 

 themselves to an indefinite length, crossing each other in every di- 

 rection ; and thus forming a coarse network that prevents the sand 

 from being readily washed away, or driven inland by the action of 

 the wind. Flowering stems erect, two or three feet high, very 

 rigid. Leaves rigid, glaucous, very long and narrow, with the 

 edges rolled inwards or involute, pointed and almost thorn-like at 

 the extremity. Inflorescence spicate, fusiform, or becoming acu- 

 minated both above and below, rather than cylindrical, from three 

 to six inches long and three-quarters of an inch broad about the 

 middle, yellow or straw-coloured, with red anthers. Glumes longer 

 than the palese; the larger one of both having, usually, a small 

 indentation below the acute point. 



Perennial. Flowers in July. 



Herbivorous animals seem universally to reject this grass, its 

 extreme rigidity, and the almost total absence of nutritive matter. 



