47 



POLYPOGON LITTORALIS. 



Smith. Hookek. Lindley. Babington. Paenell. Kunth. Koch. 



plate XIV. 



Agrostis litloralis, J. E. Smith. Withekinu. 



" " Knapp. Dickson. 



The Perennial Beard-Grass. 



Polifpogou — Many — A beard, (from the Greek.) Litloralis — Sea-shore. 



A very rare species, growing in salt marshes. 



Found in Norfolk, near Cley; in Essex, on the coast; Hamp- 

 shire, near Porchester; and Kent, near the Woolwich powder- 

 magazine; and in Germany. 



Stem upright, circular, smooth, carrying seven or eight flat, 

 roughish, acute leaves, with striated yet smooth sheaths, the 

 uppermost one considerably longer than its leaf, and its ligule 

 bold, acute, and about twice as long as it is broad. Joints 

 smooth. Inflorescence compound panicled, the rachis and 

 branches being rough with minute teeth. Spikelets numerous, 

 laterally compressed, small, and composed of two equal-sized, 

 linear, obtuse, hirsute glumes, and one floret of a little above 

 half the length of the glumes. Glumes destitute of lateral ribs, 

 dentate on the keel, and having a long rough awn of the 

 same length as the glumes, arising just beneath the apex. Floret 

 consisting of two palea?, the exterior one destitute of lateral ribs, 

 having a slender awn commencing slightly beneath the apex. 

 Inner palea shorter, thin, pellucid, and having entire margins. 

 Stamens two; styles two; scales two. Stigmas feathery. Length 



