GRA^AriXA. 
113 
leafy barren shoots, but no stolons, and with several flowering stems. 
l)arren slioots on slender stalks or subsessile, swollen into elliptical-lan- 
ceolate bulbs at the base, with the outer sheaths membranous. Flower- 
ing stems erect or ascending from a geniculate base which is swollen 
into a more slender bulb than that of the barren shoots, slender, rather 
"wdry, straight; the uppermost knot about one-tliird or one-foin-th above 
the base. Leaves of the barren shoots and base of stem thin, flaccid, 
iifirrowly linear, flat, with a very deep central furroAV, rather gradually 
j)ointed and hooded at the apex, bright green; stem leaves extremely 
short, channelled, and more hooded than those of the barren shoots; 
sheaths smooth, indistinctly ancipitate, the lowest ones greatly dilated, 
the uppermost one many times longer than its leaf; ligule very 
prominent, oblong-lanceolate, sii])acute. Panicle erect, nearly e(|ual, 
deltoid-ovoid in flower, subcylindrical-ovoid in fruit, dense. l*anicle- 
branches 1 to 3 at the lowest nodes of the rachis, but generally 2, 
unequal, the longer ones bare of spikelets and unbranched at the base 
for from one- fifth to one-third of their length, ascending-spreading in 
flower, erect and adpressed in fruit, slightly rough. Spikelets ovate, 
3- to G-flowered, usually 4- or 5-flowered. Florets connected at the 
base by arachnoid hairs. Glumes both 3-ribbed or the lower one 
1-ribbcd. Lower pale acuininate and very acute, indistinctly o-ribbed, 
with the midrib and marginal ribs silky-hairy towards the base, 
green, more or less tinged with purple, rather broadly whitish and 
On sand and tine .shingle on the seashore. Xear Plymouth, 
Devon: Shoreham. ir^ussex^St. Helen's Spit, Isle of ^Vight ; Ald- 
boroiigli and Lowestoft, Suffolk; Yarmouth Denes, Xorfolk, are the 
only stations in which it is certainly known to exist. It is >aid also 
to occur on the sandhills between Deal and Sandwicli, but ] have 
not observed it there, so that it must be very local, if not extinct in 
tliat locality. 
England. Perennial. Spring, Early Summer. 
Plant growing in dense tufts or mat<. Leaves of the barren shoots 
1 to 3 inciies lonfr. Fh)wen]m- stem> 3 inches to 1 foot h.l-h, upper- 
most stem leaf i'^. -l mch Ion- by to inch brr.ad. iSmiclo •: to 
li inch long. Spikelets ^ tu / inch lona'. Florets \ inch 
~^^'eli distinguished by' its bulbs. whiJh late In summer, when the 
leaves are withere<l, become detacliL-d from the soil in tufts, whitli are 
carried about by the wind. 
On the continent it is often viviparous, but has not been obser\cd in 
tliis condition in Britain. 
