175 



single British species. The name, from the Greek, leptos, slender, and 

 oura, a tail, alludes to the extreme slenderness of the spike, which is 

 not thicker than the stem it terminates. By some botanists the species 

 are confounded with those of Ophiurus, snakes'-tail, or of BottbmlUa. 

 Though few, they have a wide distribution. 



Lepttirus incurvatus. 8ea Hard Grass. Plate CXXXVIII. 



Spike cylindrical, subulate. Glumes two. 



Lepturus incurvatus, Trinius. Hooker and Arnott. Babington. 

 Bentham. Rottboellia incurvata, Linnaeus. E. B. 760; ed. 2, 

 186. Parnell. Ophiurus incurvatus, Beauvois. Lindley. 

 Loudon, ^gilops incurvatus, Linnaeus. Sp. plant. 



A very frequent grass in salt marshes on the coasts of England and 

 Ireland, but comparatively rare on those of Scotland. Stems decumbent 

 and much branched from the base, curving upwards toward the time of 

 flowering, smooth, bent at each joint, varying in length from two or 

 three inches to nearly a foot according to the character of the soil. 

 Leaves narrow, acute, more or less involute. Inflorescence continuous 

 with the stem, and scarcely distinguishable from it except when the 

 flowers open, cylindrical, spike-like, more or less curved or straight, 

 two to four inches long. Spikelets alternately disposed on the rachis, 

 in the depressions or cavities of which they are imbedded, being 

 covered externally by the closely appressed glumes ; of the two flowers, 

 one is almost universally barren, and little more than rudimentary. 

 Glumes flat, linear-lanceolate, acute, four-ribbed, or veined, very rigid. 

 Paleae thin, membranaceous, linear, neither veined nor awned. When 

 the seed is ripe, in place of the grain being shed, the rachis disarticu- 

 lates at the joints, and thus fulfils its dispersion. 



Annual. Flowers in July and August. 



A very slender variety, in which the stems are erect, and the spike 

 not at all curved, is met with in sandy soils, but far less commonly 

 than the normal form. It is the Lepturus fiUformis of Trinius, 

 Botiboellia fiUformis of Both, and was once regarded as a distinct 

 species. 



Only valuable as a colonizer. 



Genus 46. KNAPPIA. Knappia. 



Gen. Char., Inflorescence sub-spicate, unilateral. Spikelets shortly- 

 stalked, arranged in two series, but pointing to one side ; single- 

 flowered. Glumes two, equal, opposite, truncate, smooth, mem- 

 branaceous, single-veined. Outer palea hairy, obtuse, torn at the 

 apex, membranaceous ; inner narrower, generally absent, or very 

 small. 



