91 



an iron roller, with a number of small spade-blades fixed upon it : this 

 is drawn up and down the streams by horses walking along the banks, 

 and cuts and tears up the plants by the roots, which floating are 

 carried away by the flow of the water. 



Gi,ycBEiA FLuiTANs. Floating Sweet G-rass. Plate LXXV. 



Panicle nearly erect, slightly branched; branches nearly simple. 

 Spikelets long, linear, from about seven- to twenty-flowered. Lower 

 palea seven-veined with short intermediate ones at the base, the dorsal 

 vein scarcely extending to the summit. Leaves folded at' the mid- vein. 

 Root creeping. 



Grlyceria fluitans, R. Brown. Smith. Lindley, E. B. ed. 2. 119. 

 BuUngton, inclusive of G. plicata. Poa fluitans, Scopoli, E. B. 

 1520. Hooker and Arnott. Farnell. Beniham. Festuca fluitans, 

 Linnceus. 



One of the most common of British Grasses in wet muddy places, 

 and about ponds, ditches, and the banks of rivers, the waters of which 

 are frequently covered by its long floating stems and leaves. Flower- 

 ing stems, decumbent and rooting at the base, varying according to 

 circumstances, from one to two or three feet in height, round, smooth, 

 and usually comparatively thick and succulent. Leaves long, linear- 

 acuminate, rather rough on both surfaces ; the upper ones, especially, 

 folded inward or compressed from the mid- vein ; the lower and floating 

 ones flat. Ligule oblong, pointed, often jagged or torn on the edges. 

 Panifele erect or slightly drooping, slender, frequently a foot or more in 

 length ; its branches few, mostly simple, or but little branched, slender, 

 roughish, arranged alternately on the rachis in pairs of unequal length, 

 but with an inclination to one side of the latter. Spikelets half an inch 

 to an inch or more in length, erect or more or less divaricated when in 

 flower, linear, variegated with green and white ; very variable in the 

 number of the flowers in diff'erent specimens, the more luxuriant some- 

 times presenting fifteen or twenty, while the smaller may not consist of 

 more than six or eight, the lowermost of which is always considerably 

 longer than the larger glume at its base. Outer palea, especially in the 

 lowermost flower, with seven prominent veins, and usually short inter- 

 mediate veins at the base, the middle veins scarcely reaching the apex, 

 and rough with minute teeth. 



Perennial. Flowers from the end of June to August or September. 



The character of this grass is so truly protean, that our readers must 

 content themselves with a single figure, although many modern bota- 

 nists consider that at least two native species have been hitherto con- 

 founded, under the above name. It was our intention at first to have 

 given figures of both these, as adopted by Mr. Babington in his 

 ' Manual ; ' but close examination and repeated comparison of speci- 

 mens from various localities, have led to a contrary decision. Taking 

 the extremes of form apart from all intermediate developments, G. 

 'plicata of Fries is sufficiently distinct from the normal G. fluitans, 



