RIVERSIDES, PONDS AND ‘MARSHES 29 
floweritig glume. Both these varieties have the flowering glume 
3-toothed. 
_ Deschampsia cespitosa, the Tufted Hair-grass (fig. 37), luxuriates 
in wet, spongy soil, and is very common in such places, in meadows 
and pastures, woods and wayside ditches throughout Britain 
Easily recognised by its dense tussocks of leaves, 1-3 ft. long, very 
narrow and tapering finely, dark-green, stiff and excessively scabrid 
on the upper surface and margins; the ribs, usually seven in 
number, are remarkably prominent, opaque, with translucent inter- 
spaces. Culms 2-4 ft- Panicle large, repeatedly branched, the 
branches numerous at each insertion and widely spreading. Spike- 
lets numerous, $ inch long, silvery-purple, containing two flowers 
and a rudiment; flowering glumes 
hairy at the base, with a truncate 
jagged tip and a very slender slightly 
curved awn inserted near the base, 
and scarcely extending beyond the 
aH Perennial, flowering middle of 
uly. 
Phalaris arundinacea, the Reed 
Canary-grass, is a reedlike species, 
frequent throughout Britain on the 
margins of rivers, streams and ponds, 
and in marshy parts of woods. Root- 
stock creeping ; leaves large, broadly 
linear-lanceolate, finely striated ; 
sheaths terete; ligule rather pro- 
minent. Culms 4-5 ft. Panicle lax, 
the branches mostly in pairs, spread- 
ing at time of flowering. Spikelets 
rather crowded on the branches to 
within half an inch of the rachis, 4 pig, 23,—Agrostis alba: 2 panicles, 
inch long, compressed, pale green, one open in flower, the other closed 
aften, tinged. with, rose-purple, 1- in fyuit; om the sight above, a 
: i : et enlarged, below the same minus its 
flowered, with two rudiments (hairy empty glumes. 
pedicels) beneath the flowering : 
glume; glumes awnless, the empty ones keeled, the flowering 
glume polished and ultimately indurated. Perennial, flowering 
middle of July. The Ribbon-grass commonly grown in gardens 
is a variety having the leaves striped with white or pale yellow. 
Agrostis alba, the Marsh Bent (fig. 23), grows in damp and 
marshy places almost everywhere ; sometimes found in dry situa- 
tions, where it varies from the typical form. This species closely 
resembles 4. vulgaris, but the ligule is long and acute, sheaths 
roughish, and the branches of the panicle, though spreading at time 
of flowering, close together in fruit. The rootstock has long creeping 
or floating stolons. Culms 1-2 ft. Spikelets 3 inch long, green or 
purplish ; glumes as in A. vu/garis, but the keel of the lower empty 
glume scabrid along nearly its whole length; flowering glume 
rarely awned. Perennial, flowering latter part of July to autumn, 
