THE AGRICULTURAL GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 71 



of the Atlantic at least as far south as isTorth Carolina, ai^cl on the shores 

 of the Great Lakes, but has not so far been recorded from the Pacific 

 coast. It also grows on the sea-coast of the British Isles and of Europe. 

 It forms tufts of greater or less extent, its long creeping roots ex- 

 tending sometimes to the extent of 40 feet, and bearing tubers the size 

 of a pea, iuterlaced with death-like tenacity of grasp, and form a net- 

 work beneath the sand which resists the most vehement assaults of 

 the ocean waves." The culms are from 2 to 3 feet high, rigid and solid ; 

 the leaves long, involute, smooth, rigid, and slender-pointed ; the pan- 

 icle dense, 6 to 10 inches long, close and spike-like ; the spikelets are 

 about half an inch long, compressed, crowded on the very short branch- 

 lets. The outer glumes are nearly equal, five to six lines long, com- 

 pressed, lanceolate, chartaceous, smooth except on the thin keelj the flow- 

 ering glume is a little shorter, acute or slightly mucronate at the tip, 

 obscurely five-nerved ^ the palet about as long as its glume, two-keeled. 

 The hairs at the base are rather scanty, and about one-third as long as 

 the floweriug glume ; the hairy pedicel is of about the same length. 

 This grass has no agricultural value, but from time immemorial its util- 

 ity in binding together the loose sands of the beach and restraining the 

 inroads of the ocean has been recognized and provided for in some 

 places by law. Mr. Flint, in his work on grasses, says that the town 

 and harbor of Provincetown, once called Cape Cod, where the Pilgrims 

 first landed, one of the largest and most important harbors in the United 

 States, sufficient in depth for ships of largest size, and in extent to anchor 

 three thousand vessels at once, owe their preservation to this grass. 

 The usual way of propagating the grass is by transplanting the roots. 

 The grass is pulled up by hand and placed in a hole about a foot deep 

 and the sand pressed around it .by the foot. There are undoubtedly 

 many places on the sea-coast where this grass would be of inestimable 

 value in restraining the encroachment of the ocean. It would also be 

 useful in forming a dense turf for the protection of dikes and banks 

 subject to water-washing. 



Ammophila longifolia. 



This grass, formerly called Calamagrostis longifolia, has recently been 

 transferred by Mr. Bentham to genus Ammophila. It grows on the 

 sandy plains ofthe interior from British America to Arizona, and on the 

 borders ofthe Great Lakes. It has strong running root-stalks, like the 

 preceding, but is much taller, the culms being 3 to 6 feet high, stout 

 and reed-like ; the leaves long, rigid, and becoming involute, with a long 

 thread-like point. The panicle is quite variable, from 4 to 16 inches long, 

 at first rather close, but becoming open and spreading, the branches in 

 the smaller forms being 2 or 3 inches long, and in the larger ones often 

 10 or 12 inches and widely spreading. The outer glumes are lanceolate, 

 unequal, smooth, and chartaceous, the upper one three to four lines long, 

 the lower about one-fourth shorter. 



