137 



Genus 38. PHRAGMITES. Reed. 



G-EN. Char. Inflorescence paniculate, loose and spreading, much 

 branched. Spikelets stalked, laterally compressed, two- to six- 

 flowered; the lower flower barren, all enveloped by long silky 

 hairs attached to the rachis of the spikelet. G-lumes two, 

 membranaceous, unequal, the lower one shorter than the upper, 

 which is itself shorter than the spikelet. Palese two, membrana- 

 ceous; the outer one much longer than the inner, very much 

 acouminated, awnless. 



The genus is a very small one, containing at most only two or three 

 known species, and was originally included in Anmdo, from which it 

 is especially distinguished by the long silky hairs clothing the rachis of 

 the spikelets, and by the lowermost flower of the latter being always 

 imperfect. Anmdo Phragmites of Linnaeus, the common reed of this 

 country, is the type, and the only well authenticated species. The 

 name is Greek, and denotes the purpose to which it has been applied 

 from a very early period, namely, for forming inclosures, roofing and 

 wattling sheds and other rustic erections, being derivable from phragma, 

 a wall or partition. 



Phragmites communis. Common Reed. Plate CXVIII. 



Panicle slightly drooping, loose, spreading. Spikelets three- to five- 

 flowered, longer than the glumes. Leaves broad, acuminate ; the 

 uppermost almost lanceolate. 



Phragmites communis, Trinius. Koch. Babington. Hooker und 

 Arnott. Arundo Phragmites, Linnceus. E. B. 401 ; ed. 2. 167. 

 Parnell. Bentham. 



Common throughout the kingdom on the margins of rivers, lakes, 

 and ponds ; the latter, when shallow, being rapidly _ overrun by its 

 growth. It is, however, only found in situations which are covered 

 with water throughout the summer, soon dying away under the influ- 

 ence of drainage. The strong, cord-like stolones creep widely in all 

 directions through the mud ; the stems rising erect to the height, in 

 most instances, of five or six feet, though in swampy woods and ditches 

 they occasionally attain ten or twelve feet. In a prostrate or hori- 

 zontal position, which they are said sometimes, though rarely, to assume, 

 the length of from twenty to forty feet is recorded as the extent of 

 growth, in the ' British Flora ; ' the circumstances under which this 

 extraordinary development takes place are not mentioned. The 

 leaves of which there are fifteen or more on each stem, are smooth, 

 often an inch in breadth, and sometimes a foot long ; they are gene- 



