40 BRITISH SPECIES 
of two kinds, paired, one of each pair 2- or 3-flowered, the other 
sterile ; glumes of the sterile spikelets terminating in an awn their 
own. length ; flowering glumes similarly awned. Annual, flower- 
ing June, July. ; 
Festuca ovina, var. glauca, common on sea banks, is an in- 
tensely glaucous form with short, rigid, recurved leaves ; flowering 
glumes awned. 
Bromus mollis, var. hordaceus, is a dwarf prostrate form with 
glabrous spikelets (¢.e. not hairy or downy), growing in dry and 
sandy places by the sea. Var. L/oydianus, found on the shores of 
the Channel Islands, has the awns bent outward in fruit. 
Festuca elatior, var. arundinacea, with scabrid leaf-sheaths and 
the branches of the panicle spread- 
ing in fruit, is found on moist, sandy 
banks by the sea. 
Agrostis alba, var. stolonifera, 
Fiorin-grass, occurs chiefly on sea- 
banks; it has prostrate stems, 
which root freely at the nodes, and 
the panicle is dense, lobed, and 
dull green. 
Growing in salt marshes, on the 
banks of tidal rivers, and in muddy 
waste places by the sea :— 
Glycerta maritima, the Creeping 
Sea Sweet-grass, is frequent on all 
the British coasts, and grows in 
abundance. Rootstock densely 
tufted, producing numerous trailing 
leafy stolons, the leaves of which 
are fleshy, closely involute, and end- 
H ing ina hard point. Culms about 
MM" i afoot high. Panicle rather one- 
Fic. 29.—Lepturus filiformis:onone Sided and contracted, with short 
spike the spikelets are flowering and ascending branches, 2-3 at the 
divergent, the other spikes closed. lower insertions, pale green or pur- 
plish on one side, glaucous. Spike- 
lets adpressed to the branches, about 4 inch long, containing 
usually five, but sometimes as many as eight flowers; flowering 
glumes with a scarious blunt tip, the dorsal nerve reaching it, but 
not excurrent. Perennial, flowering in July. Var. G. hésfzda has 
rough panicle-branches; var. G. rifarza is a slender form with 
fewer spikelets. 
Lepturus filtformis, the Sea Hard-grass (fig. 29), is frequent in 
the southern half of England, becoming scarce northward ; very 
rare in Scotland, and distributed sparingly around the Irish coast. 
Culms tufted, about 6 inches high; leaves short, ultimately in- 
volute. Spike cylindric, very slender, often slightly curved, green 
and shining. Rachis excavated and jointed, and the spikelets so 
deeply sunk, one in each excavation that, except when flowering 
