146 
TRXANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Phleum, 
(Creeping Dog's-tooth Grass. C. dactylon. Br. Sm. Eng. FI. Vanicum 
dactylon. Linn. Digitaria stolonifera. Schrad. Agrostis linearis. Koenig. 
Retz. Willd. E.) Sandy sea-shore. Between Penzance and Market-jeu. 
Ray. And lately in the same place by Mr. Stackhouse. P. July.* 
PHLE'UM.f Cal . two valved, sessile, strap-shaped, truncated, 
ending in two dagger points, inclosing the blossom. 
{Seed loose. E.) 
(P. arena'rium. Spike slightly panicled, egg-spear-shaped, obtuse: 
calyx-glumes spear-shaped, ciliated at the back, thrice the length 
of the abrupt, crenated blossom. 
Hook. FI Lond. — FI. Dan . 915— E. Bot. 222— Pink. 33. 8— Mont 74— 
spike only. 
Calyx valves furnished with two dagger-points, which assimilate it with 
the genus Phleum. Straws branched at the bottom, several from one 
root, ascending four or five inches high; leafy below, naked and purplish 
above. 
ea Cat's-tail Grass. Welsh: Pefr-wellt-y-tywod. P.arenarium. Linn. 
Hook. Sm. Eng. FI. Grev. Phalaris arenaria. Huds. With. Ed. 6. Sm. 
FI. Brit. Willd. On sandy shores not unfrequent. Yarmouth. Mr. 
Woodward. Newborough Sands, Anglesey. Mr. Griffith. North shore, 
near Liverpool. Dr. Bostock. North shore at Poole; at Swanage, and 
Weymouth. Pulteney. Near Burnt Island. Arnott, in Grev. Edin. On 
the Den at Teignmouth. E.) A. July—Aug. 
P. as'perum. Panicle cylindrical, spike-like; stems branched; (calyx 
wedge-shaped, swelling upward, pointed, rough: keel naked. 
Jacq. Col. 110— E. Bot 1077. 
Whole plant bright green. Boot of several strong, whorled fibres. Stem 
eight to eighteen inches high, very smooth, leafy. Leaves roughish, pointed, 
erect, with slightly swelling sheaths. Stipula oblong, generally torn. 
Panicles terminal, solitary, erect, two or three inches long, very dense, 
rough, when bent on one side proving to be much branched and sub¬ 
divided, consisting of innumerable little tumid Jlowers. Bloss. of two 
* (In the climate of Great Britain, (as appears from the experiments of Mr. Sinclair), 
the produce and nutritive powers of this grass are insignificant, compared to the im¬ 
portance attached to them in the East Indies : or rather we should be inclined to infer 
that in a continent dried as that of Hindoostan, producing but little herbage for cattle, 
compared with the emerald Isles of the Ocean, every addition to the natural green food 
must be doubty valuable. One of the most interesting circumstances connected with 
the history of C. dactylon is its having been clearly ascertained to be the Duma or Dub- 
grass of the Hindoos; respecting which Sir W. Jones observes, “ Its flowers, in their 
perfect state, are among the loveliest objects in the vegetable world, and appear, 
through a lens, like minute rubies and emeralds, in constant motion from the least 
breath of air. It is the sweetest and most nutritious pasture for cattle ; and its useful¬ 
ness, added to its beauty, induced the Hindus, in their earliest ages, to believe that it 
was the mansion of a benevolent nymph. Even the Veda celebrates it, as in the fol¬ 
lowing text of the A’t’harvana: ‘May Dtirva, which rose from the water of life, which 
has a hundred roots and a hundred stems, efface a hundred of my sins, and prolong my 
existence on earth for a hundred years !’ The longer quotations introduced in Hort. 
Gram, we apprehend belong to another plant.” Yid.Sir W. Jones’s Works, v, 8vo. Ed. 
and Linn. Tr. vii. E.) 
t ($As*>, to abound; from its seed ? E.) 
