SEASHORE: LOOSE SAND 35 
raceme, the very short branches from which they depend being 
seldom divided. The spikelets are ¢ inch long or rather more, 
oval, purplish-brown, 2-flowered with the characteristic terminal 
clavate rudiments ; glumes awnless, the empty ones shorter than 
the flowering. Perennial, flowering latter part of May, June. 
Festuca sylvatica, the Wood Fescue, is both local and scarce, 
although widely distributed, occurring chiefly in hilly and mountain- 
ous districts. Rootstock densely tufted. Leaves large, flat, broadly 
linear and tapering above, with flat ribs and scabrid margins, dark 
green and shining beneath ; sheaths rough, ligule rather short, 
toothed. Culms about 3 ft., with short, scale-like, acute, leafless 
sheaths at the base. Panicle much branched, symmetrically 
spreading, and erect. Spikelets numerous, about + inch long, 
3- to 5-flowered ; flowering glumes narrow, rounded on the back 
and tapering into a mucro. Ovary hairy at the top. Perennial, 
flowering middle of July. 
Hordeum sylvaticum, the Wood Barley, is a rare woodland grass 
confined to England and occurring principally on chalk and lime- 
stone soils. Rootstock loosely tufted, creeping. Leaves flat, 
rather broad, and tapering from near the base, with scattered hairs 
above, dark-green, auricled ; sheaths clothed with deflexed hairs ; 
ligule short and truncate. Culms about 3 ft. Spike nearly cylin- 
dric. Spikelets 4 inch long, three in each excavation of the rachis, 
1-flowered ; the flowers of the two lateral spikelets bisexual, the 
middle spikelet with a staminate flower ; empty glumes all bristle- 
like, not ciliate, scabrid, prolonged into an awn about their own 
length; flowering glumes narrow, faintly 3-nerved, with an awn 
about 14 times their length. Perennial, flowering late July. 
The grasses of the seashore are a numerous group, which may 
be divided into three smaller groups; Ist, the grasses which grow 
in loose sand ; 2nd, those growing in sandy pastures and dry waste 
places by the sea ; 3rd, those partial to salt marshes, the banks of 
tidal rivers, and muddy places by the sea. 
In the loose sand of the seashore, or on the dunes or sand- 
hillocks :— 
Ammophila arundinacea, the Common Sea-reed or Marram, is 
the commonest of our sand-grasses, generally distributed, and 
always growing in abundance. Rootstock extensively creeping by 
means of long subterranean stolons. Leaves long, narrow, rigid, 
and ultimately convulute, with a few thick ribs ; ligule very long 
and split. Culms 2-3 ft. Panicle spikelike, 4-5 inches long, dense, 
stout, and spindle-shaped, pale green or straw-color. Spikelets 
about 4 inch long, stiff, containing one flower and a stalk-like rudi- 
ment; flowering glume a little shorter than the empty ones, 
shortly bearded at the base, and with a minute awn from just below 
the bifid tip ; hairs one third the length of the flowering glume. 
Perennial, flowering middle of July. ; 
Agropyrum junceum, the Sea Couch, is scarcely less abundant 
than the preceding, and like it has an extensively creeping root- 
