The Physiological Anatomy of Spartina Townsendii. 
BY 
GEO. K. SUTHERLAND 
AND 
A. EASTWOOD. 
With seven Figures in the Text. 
Introduction. 
^PARTIN A is a small genus of very characteristic grasses, mainly 
^ natives of the Atlantic seaboard of America, where they are to be 
found abundantly in salt marsh and estuary. Spartina cynosnroides, the 
freshwater Cord Grass, penetrates inland to the Missouri River, and in the 
Western States it forms a large part of the grass of sloughs and wet marshes. 
In Europe only four representatives occur, if we regard S. Townsendii and 
S. Neyrauti as one species. 
S', juncea is restricted to the western portion of the Mediterranean, 
whither it was introduced probably by shipping. Of the other three 
the oldest known is S. stricta , which Stapf regards as undoubtedly indi- 
genous. It has the widest distribution of the European forms, but, not- 
withstanding its long establishment, it is becoming scarce on the south 
coast of Britain owing to the rapid spread of a later species. S. alternifiora 
was recorded first from the neighbourhood of Bayonne at the beginning of 
last century, and later it was discovered at the head of Southampton Water, 
down which it spread until its progress was checked by the remaining 
species, S. Townsendii , about whose origin and first appearance considerable 
uncertainty exists. 
In his Flora of Hampshire, published in 1883, Townsend gives the 
first record of this species as 1878, when it was collected in the neighbour- 
hood of Hythe, Southampton Water, by the brothers Groves, who described 
it shortly afterwards as a distinct species. But there is no doubt that 
it existed earlier, although overlooked. A specimen in the Warner Herba- 
rium at University College, Southampton, collected near Hythe in 1870 and 
labelled S', stricta , is undoubtedly S'. Townsendii . This carries it definitely 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XXX. No. CXVIII. April, 1916.] 
