49 



Spartwa Townsendi. — H. & J. Groves, 

 Intermediate Cord Grass. 



It may be useful to mention that this grass has received much 

 attention in the neighbourhood of Lymington and in Southampton 

 Water. Dr. Stapf, F.R.S., of Kew, has been a constant observer 

 and with his valuable assistance much useful work has been done 

 in the districts above mentioned as well as in Poole Harbour. 

 References to the literature are given at the end of this note. The 

 observations by members of the Bournemouth Natural Science 

 Society have, naturally, been confined to Poole Harbour and 

 adjacent creeks, and it is to these localities that the following 

 remarks apply. 



The numerous dots in the mud to be noticed last year (191 1) 

 are now becoming bunches of grass, the bunches are patches, the 

 patches belts, and so on to acres. A very marked example is a 

 belt of the bunches that show like little islands at high water, and 

 run from the shore a little west of Rock Ley Railway Bridge 

 towards Arne shore and the Wareham Channel. To the west of 

 these, two fresh large patches are forming and this is the most 

 marked example noticed of actual increase in a new part. To 

 realize the heart of the matter of extending growth it must be 

 inspected at Wych and Ower Bay on the South of the Harbour, 

 while after passing Newton Bay and Goatshorn in Brands Bay, 

 lying to the eastward, the luxuriant growth decreases to similar 

 patches, bunches and dots seen in the mud at Red Horn Quay, 

 and these become even less in Bramble Bush Bay, a fact that 

 should be well marked this year for further observation. It seems 

 probable that this pretty spiked grass has a preference for the 

 creeks watered with little streams lying on the southern shore of 

 the Harbour. 



A good idea of the whole situation can be grasped by taking 

 train to Corfe Castle and going about a mile along the Down to 

 the eastward. For choice a time of low water and a western sun 

 should be taken, and then with a clear day, and the help of 

 powerful field glasses and a 6-inch ordnance map a visitor will see 

 in a quarter of an hour most of the various increases that it has 

 taken hours and days to find out by repeated visits to the grounds. 



I am quite in agreement with Mr. Brown that Long 

 and Round Island are now practically connected by the grass at 

 the time of low water. 



First Record, H. & J. Groves, 1878. 



Journal of Botany, xi. i 188^ (with plate), S. stricta var H. & J. Groves. Journal of Botany^ 

 viii, 277, Towusend's Cord Grass. 



Townsend's Flora of Hants, 1904, page 479. 



Gardeners' Chronicle, vol. xliii., Third Series, 1908, page 33. 



Tansey : Types of British Vegetation, 1911, page 337. 



