976 



THE GRASS FAMILY. 



same point, so as to appear digitate. At the base of the palea is a 

 small bristle or prolongation of the axis, sometimes bearing a very 

 minute rudimentary glume. 



A genus of very few species, perhaps all varieties of a single one, 

 readily known by the digitate spikes from all British Grasses except 

 the fingered and the glabrous Panicums, and from them by the spike- 

 lets arranged singly, not in pairs, along the spikes. 



1. Creeping Cynodon. Cynodon Dactylon, Pers. 

 (Fig. 1185.) 



(Panicum, Eng. Bot. t. 850.) 



A low, prostrate Grass, often creep- 

 ing and rooting to a great extent ; the 

 flowering stems shortly ascending, with 

 short leaves of a glaucous green. Pa- 

 nicle of 3 to 5 slender spikes, each 1 to 

 1\ inches long. Spikelets less than a line 

 long; the outer glumes nearly equal, 

 open, narrow, and pointed. Flowering 

 glume rather longer and much broader, 

 becoming hardened when in fruit, 

 smooth on the sides, rather rough on 

 the keel and edges. 



In cultivated and waste places, espe- 

 cially near the sea, very common in 

 southern Europe and in all hot coun- 

 tries, extending more sparingly into 

 northern France and central Germany. 

 ±ig. lloo. j u Britain, only in a few stations on the 



south-western coasts of England. FL summer and autumn. 



XXII. SPARTINA. SPAKTINA. 



Spikelets 1-flowered, much flattened, and awnless, sessile along one 

 side of the simple branches of a long, spike-like panicle. Glumes long 

 and narrow, strongly keeled, the palea as long as or longer than the 

 flowering glume. 



A small genus, chiefly American, and almost confined to seacoasts. 



