140 



Genna 39. ELYMUS. Lyme Grass. 



Gen. Chae. Inflorescence more or less compact or spicate. Spike- 

 lets sessile, arranged in pairs upon a toothed rachis, each contain- 

 ing from two to four perfect flowers. Glumes two, both on the 

 same side of the spikelet, awnless. Paless two, usually coherent 

 with the ripening fruit. 



A genus of equivocal extent, distributed over the whole northern 

 hemisphere, especially in the more temperate and colder regions, 

 though two or three alleged species are found within the tropic. In 

 several structural poiilts these grasses are nearly allied to those of the 

 next genus, Hordeum, differing from them, almost exclusively, in the 

 spikelets containing two or more perfect flowers, while those of Hordeum 

 have only one : indeed, from the circumstance of one of the two 

 flowers in the Elymus Europoeus of Linnasus being usually barren, 

 most modern English botanists place it in the latter genus. 



The derivation of the name is not very evident, but bestowed by the 

 Greeks upon some species of grass, probably one of the Panic-grasses, 

 growing, it has been suggested, about Elyma : it was transferred to 

 this genus by Linnaeus. 



The true Lyme Grasses are plants of rigid texture, apparently not 

 at all adapted for affording nourishment to cattle, and only useful as 

 colonizers, as exemplified in the British species, Elymus arenarius, 

 which, like the sea-reed, Ammophila arundinacea, and other sand- 

 binders, is refused by aU herbivorous animals. 



Elymus akenarius. Upright Sea Lyme Grass. Plate CXIX. 



Spicate panicle compact, very erect. Kachis flat, not winged. 

 Glumes lanceolate, downy, about the length of the spikelets. 



Elymus arenarius, Linnceus. E. B. 1672; ed. 2. 171. Generally 

 adopted by modern botanists. 



Very frequent on sandy sea-shores, where it sometimes accompanies 

 the sea-reed, (see Ammophila arundinacea, p. 14, Plate XII.), or other- 

 wise supplies its place in fixing the loose sand. Stolones widely creep- 

 ing and rooting, like those of the last-mentioned grass, which, in some 

 situations, they overpower and obliterate. Flowering stems three to 

 five feet high. Leaves very glaucous, rough on the upper side, broader 

 than those of Ammophila, but, like them, usually involute and sharply 

 pointed. Ligule very short and obtuse. Inflorescence densely spicate, 

 four to nine inches long, erect, glaucous, spikelets arranged in pairs on 

 each tooth of the rachis, seldom fewer than three- or more than four- 

 flowered. Glumes two, nearly equal, linear-lanceolate, very acute, 

 collateral, or placed together on the outer side of the oppressed spikelet. 



