6 
ENGLISH BOTANY. 
Leaves with their apices extending beyond the top of the second 
sheath above them, as long as or longer than the spikes, broadly- 
linear, flat, smooth, with closely-placed thick glaucous cartilaginous 
ribs on the face, dark green and shining on the back. Spikes 5 to 8 
(rarely 3 or 4 or more than 8), terminal, sub-approximate, sessile, 
erect, the uppermost one stalked, loosely applied to each other, dis- 
tichous, slightly unilateral ; rachis slightly flexuous, triquetro-trigo- 
nous, smooth, extending beyond the glumes of the uppermost spikelet 
for a distance about equal to these glumes. Spikelets 8 to 20 in each 
spike, erect, alternate, more than half their own length apart, sessile, 
linear-lanceolate. Glumes unequal, glabrous or sub-glabrous, the lower 
one about half the length of the upper, acuminate, the upper one 
entire, gradually accuminated or obliquely truncate at the apex, 
which has no distinct awn, 3-ribbed, rough on the keel. 
On mud in tidal rivers, submerged at low water. Pxare ; abundant 
on the mud-flats of the river Itchen, probably introduced from 
America. 
England. Perennial. Late Summer, Autumn. 
Very near S. stricta, of which Dr. J. Hooker, in his admirable 
" Student's Flora," regards it as a sub-species, while Dr. Asa Gray con- 
siders it as but a variety of S. stricta. S. alterniflora is a "much 
larger and stouter plant, 18 inches to 4 feet high, with leaves G to 18 
inches long by J- to nich broad, not contracted and articulatt^d at 
the base as in S. stricta; the spikes, besides being more numerous, 
are more slender, more distant, more loosely applied, and from 3 to 
G Inches long or more. The point of the rachis is proh)ngcd much 
further beyond the uppermost spikelet, and has the spikelets more 
distyohous and placed further apart than in S. stricta; the spikelets 
arc rather smaller, scarcely } inch long, and ghibroiis; the outer glume 
is shortt^r, the inner one not conspicuously notched, and without an 
e\ideiit awn or nuicro, and the bides ha\-e each a conspicuous lateral 
Majiy-spiked Cord Grass. 
Dr. Bromfield states that at Soutliampton this grass is " regul.'irlv cnt down by tlie 
poorer classes and cmplored bj tliem in lieu of straw or reeds for tiuirr-hiriLr oatlmnsrs, 
cowslieds, &c. ; and more extensively for litter, and subsequently as manure. Il.jrses 
and pigs, I am told, eat it greedily."— PA?//. 1850, p. lO'jt). 
fEX'- rrr_CHAMAGROSTIS. BorM. 
arranged unilaterally in 2 rows in a spike-like 
--Lssed, closed during flowering, each containing 
