180 



Cynodon dactylon, Persoon. E. B. ed. 2. 188. Modern botanists 

 generally. Panicum dactylon, Linnceics. E. B. 850. Withering. 

 Knapp. 



Rare as a British grass, being only met with on the sandy sea-shores 

 of the south-western counties of England ; on those about Penzance, in 

 Cornwall, it grows most abundantly, and has been found in_ a ifew 

 scattered localities on the English Channel coasts of Devonshire and 

 Dorset, but not farther east than Studland in the latter county. A 

 low, creeping grass, spreading extensively at the root by sending out 

 long cord-hke stolones that fix themselves firmly in the loose sand by 

 producing at every joint a cluster of strong radicle fibres. The flower- 

 ing stems are seldom more than four or five inches in height, springing 

 here and there from the prostrate barren leaf shoots, that, branching 

 and rooting as they extend, cover the soil with a compact network. 

 Leaves flat, except on the culms, where they are generally folded, but 

 not involute, rather short, acute, somewhat hairy. Ligule absent, or 

 only represented by a tuft of hairs at the top of the sheath ; which 

 latter eventually opens, leaving the culm exposed. Spikes of the in- 

 florescence linear, an inch to two inches in length, usually four or five, 

 spreading like the stalks of an umbel, but always to one side ; occa- 

 sionally two or three branch out from a common rachis, when the 

 inflorescence assumes the form of a racemose panicle. Spikelets 

 laterally compressed, purplish, variable in number, often ten or twelve 

 on each spike, equidistant, nearly sessile, unilateral, with only one 

 perfect flower. G-lumes acute, the outer one rather smaller, bristly on 

 the upper part of the mid-vein or keel, shorter than the flower. Outer 

 palea large, smooth, but cUiated on the margins and midvein. 



Perennial. Flowers from July to September. 



A maritime grass, common on all the coasts of southern Europe, and 

 the islands and basin of the Mediterranean, where it is among the most 

 efl&cient of the class of sand-binders, covering the surface of the loose 

 material, with its dense and rapidly-forming network, as well as inter- 

 lacing it below. In England, as indicated by its very local distribu- 

 tion, it can only be regarded as a naturalized species, and as one not 

 very likely to extend its habitats much northward. It is strictly a 

 denizen of warm latitudes, and evidently incapable of withstanding the 

 effects of excessive cold and moisture ; as in the neighbourhood of 

 London it suffered, last winter (1860-61), almost equally with Arundo 

 Dorax, Tripsacum dactyloides, and other semi-tropical plants of the 

 order. Either the same or certain very nearly allied species is found 

 both in the East and West Indies ; in the former Cynodon linearis, 

 regarded by some persons as identical with C. Dactylon, is one of the 

 most common and valuable of fodder grasses, known as the Durva or 

 Doorba grass of Hindustan ; and Dr. ParneU mentions his having 

 received authentic specimens of that now before us from Jamaica. 



