189 
brous, narrowly oblong, convex on the back, furrowed on tbe inner 
SPECIES I.— LEPTUR US FILIFORMIS. Trin. 
Plate MDCCCXVIII. 
Beich. Ic. El. Germ, et Helv. Vol. I. Tab. CYIII. Fig. 223. 
Billot, El. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 2190. 
L. incurvatus, /3 filiformis, Bah. Man. Brit. Bot. ed. vi. p. 426. 
OpHurus fiKformis, Earn. & Schdtes, Syst. Veg. Vol. II. p. 797. 
O. incurvatus, Lindl. Syn. Brit. El. p. 295. 
RotboUia filiformis, Both. Bertol. El. Ital. Vol. I. p. 766. 
R. incurvata, Sm. Engl. Bot. ed. i. No. 760, and Engl. El. Vol. I. p. 175. 
Flowering stems erect or decumbent, much branched. Ligule 
very short, truncate. Spikes slender, cylindrical, scarcely tapering to 
the apex, straight or. very slightly curved. Lateral florets with 2 
glumes. Pales as long as the glumes. 
In salt marshes and waste places by the sea, and on the margins of 
tidal rivers. Common and generally distributed in the southern half 
of England, less common in the north. Very local in Scotland, where 
I know of no stations but Aberledy Bay, Haddington ; and Blackness, 
Linlithgow. Possibly it may have been found near Liverkeithing, 
Fife; but it is doubtful whether the plant which occurred there 
was the native L. filiformis, or the continental sub-species L. incur- 
vatus, which has occurred on ballast at St. Davids, in the neighbour- 
hood of Inverkeithing, Frequent but rather local all round the Irish 
England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer, Autumn. 
Stems 2 to 15 inches high or long, branched at most of the nodes. 
Loaves 1 to 3 inches long by yV i t)road, ultimately involute. 
Terminal spikes longer than the lateral ones, 1 to 5 inches long. 
Spikelets inch, closely fitting into the excavations of the rachis, so 
that, except when the plants are in flower, the spikes resemble slender 
rushes. Glumes diverging in flower, herbaceous, acuminate, 3 -ribbed. 
Anthers yellowish-white. 
The spikes in L. tiliformis vary, being sometimes straight, some- 
times gently curved, but they are never so greatly curv^ed as in the 
sub-species L. incurvatus: in "this, too, the spikes are thicker, slightly 
tapering, and the [)ales are a little shorter than the glumes :' the 
stems also are always decumbent or procumbent. 
Sea Hard-Grass. 
Geriiftin. Fadnwjrrtiiger I>"n iisrhvav;:. 
