177 



destitute of agricultural value, and, indeed, almost beyond the pale of 

 cultivation. 



The name is of doubtful origin, but is supposed to have been adopted 

 from the resemblance in habit between these grasses and the Lygeum 

 Spartvm, the Bass- weed, or Cord-grass of Spain; esparto being a 

 general name in that country for grasses used in manufacturing ropes, 

 baskets, nets, &c. The Greek spartan seems to have had some similar 

 general signification. 



Spartina steicta. Twin-spiked Cord Grass. Plate CXL. 



Partial spikes two or three, appressed, erect ; their rachis angular, 

 smooth, scarcely extended beyond the terminal spikelet. Glumes 

 hairy; the inner and larger one single-veined. Outer palea hairy, 

 single-veined ■, inner one much longer, delicately two-veined. Leaves 

 articulated with their sheaths ; the uppermost (usually) shorter than 

 the spikes. 



Spartina striota. Smith. E. B. ed. 2. 190. Generally adopted. 

 Dactylis stricta, Linnwus. Knapp. Withering. E. B. 380. 

 D. cynosuroides, Hudson. 



Not unfrequent in muddy salt marshes on the eastern and south- 

 eastern shores of England, especially near the mouths of rivers. 

 Whole plant remarkably rigid. Root more or less creeping. Stems 

 from six or eight inches to a foot and a half high ; completely invested 

 by the sheathing bases of the leaves, the uppermost of which extends 

 to immediately below the inflorescence. Leaves comparatively short, 

 pungent, more or less involute, very rigid; often contracted at the 

 base, where they join the sheath, so as to form a spurious articulation 

 at which they readily separate. Inflorescence sometimes simply 

 spicate ; but more commonly consisting of two or even three spike-like 

 branches connected at the lower part, erect and parallel. Eachis 

 angular, smooth. Spikelets laterally compressed, sessile, arranged 

 alternately in two series on the same side of the rachis ; five to ten on 

 each partial spike, bearing individually one perfect flower and occa- 

 sionally the. rudiment of a second. Glumes very unequal, the outer 

 one much the smaller ; both hairy, and without any lateral veins. 

 Palese very unequal ; the outer smaller, hairy, and with only a dorsal 

 vein ; the inner two-veined, longer than the larger glume. 



Perennial. Flowers in August. 



Far too rigid to be eaten by cattle ; but valuable as a colonizer and 

 land-former in the situations where it flourishes, contributing largely 

 towards fixing and rendering solid the mud-flats that accumulate about 

 the mouths of rivers on low coasts. A brackish condition of the mud- 

 water or frequent sprinkling from the sea-spray seems essential to its 

 vegetation, as I have experienced in my frequent attempts to naturalize 

 it in the botanic garden. 



