PHALARIS AREN ARIA. ( Hudson's Flora Ang.
I Phleum arenarium, Sf.Plant.
Sea Canary-grass.
Spec. Chau. Spike obovate; calyx bristled towards the summit; floret valves smooth.
T h is Phalaris is an inhabitant o f several of our sea shores,* growing often in the very drifts of sand;
it makes no conspicuous figure, and is more a solitary than an abundant plant. We sometimes m
damp places see it a foot high, but in general it is only a few inches. Straw coloured and shining,
and often knee-jointed at the base; sheathing tumid and large, terminating in short broad leaves, free
from hairs; antherm white, and very small.------We must place this our Sea Canary-grass among
those plants of whose virtues we are ignorant, small and insignificant in stature, and of utility latent
or confined.____ Linnaeus arranges this plant with Phleum, with which it certainly does not accord;
the peculiar dagger-like termination o ffhe . calyx in Phleum is an excellent distinction of that genus,
and will always detect it; yet the little plant before us approaches towards it; the bristle-like hairs
towards the summit, and the manner in which the calyx-valves terminate, shew its affinity, and it may
perhaps form the link of connection between the genera of Phalaris and Phleum.------We occasionally
find a small variety of this plant about an inch high, with the spike disproportionably large, and almost
rotund. Fig. 2.
A, a Branch from the Spike.
B, the Calyx.
C, the Valves of the Floret.
D, the Germin, &c.
jï TO, Phala,is is occasionally to be found far removed from the sea, and in the dry corn-fields about Narborough,
in Norfolk, it is commonly to be met with.