31 



Calamageostis stricta. Lesser Small-Reed. Plate XXVII. 



Panicle erect, more or less compact or expanded, Spikelets 

 erect, not unilateral. Glumes lanceolate, veined, the keel rather 

 rough. Palese nearly equalling the glumes in length, much ex- 

 ceeding the basal hairs. Awn from below the middle of the outer 

 palea and scarcely exceeding it in length. 



Calamagrostis stricta, Nuttall. Most modern English botanists. 

 Arundo stricta, E. B. 3160 ; ed. 3. 1 70. Deyeuxia neglecta, 

 Kunth. Macreight, Manual Brit. Bot. 



Very rare, on bogs. Discovered by the late Mr. G. Don, on 

 White Muir Marsh, near Forfar, Scotland, where it is said no 

 longer to exist ; since found near Rescobie Loch, four miles from 

 Forfar, and on Oakmere in Delaware Forest, Cheshire. The plant 

 creeps at the root, sending up erect stems from two to four feet in 

 height. The leaves vary in outline, those of the flower-stems being 

 comparatively broad, while on the barren shoots they are much 

 narrower, and, sometimes, even slender. Panicle two to four 

 inches long, spreading when in flower. The glumes, figure a, are 

 more or less conspicuously three-veined, especially the outer one. 

 Of the palese, the outer is nearly equal in length to the inner 

 glume, and its awn, arising from a little below the middle, extends 

 but a short distance above its bifid or notched apex ; both are con- 

 siderably longer than the hairs which invest the base of the flower, 

 figure b. The rudiment of a second flower is readily traceable in 

 the spikelets of this species, in the form of a minute stalk, bearing a 

 little tuft of hairs ; and in a specimen before me l^is is surmounted 

 by a third, of which the stalk or pedicel only is present, without 

 the hairs. ■ 



Perennial. Flowers in June and July. 



It appears that the second Forfarshire habitat of this Grass no 

 longer exists, having been extirpated by drainage. 



A slightly distinct variety, discovered by Mr. D. Moore on 

 Church Island, Lough Neagh, and since found in other places in 

 the county of Antrim, Ireland, was for a long time regarded as 

 Arundo lapponica of Wahlenberg ; a species which differs, how- 

 ever, considerably from any of British growth hitherto collected, 

 and, especially, in having the awn geniculate or knee-bent instead 

 of straight ; while it resembles our C Epigejos and C. lanceolata 

 in the greater comparative length of the basal hairs, a feature 

 certainly not appertaining to any of the Lough Neagh specimens 

 which have come under my inspection. 



