A R U N D O.
Gkto. Chau. Calyx with two valves; florets surrounded with wool at the base. Gen. Plant.
ARUNDO PHRAGMITES. {sfec. Pian,
Common Reed.
Spec. Chae. Panicle spreading; calyx containing five’florets. '
Ahundo Phragmites is a plant universally known, but in a young state (such as the Plate represents)
.t is with great difficulty made to answer the specific character, as the five florets are then too tender
to be separated; but advancing in age the difficulty ceases. Its leaves are slightly serrated, but
towards maturity the spines fall off; they are likewise marked in two places with little pits or folds, a
singularity observable in no other species o f the genus, th e floret branches, when young, are surrounded
at the joints from whence they issue with minute down, which is to be found only in an
infant state.----------Arundo Phrragmites is a plant that the agriculturist pays no attention to, but for
to eradicate; yet in rural economy it justly holds a distinguished rank: in many o f the lowlands in
the counties o f Huntingdon, Cambridge, and Lincoln, it constitutes the crop of the soil, and is
harvested with considerable care, and from thence is exported and spread through the neighbouring
counties, being made use of as a thatch for bams, cottages, and outhouses; which proves to be less
expensive, and more durable than other vegetable materials.------The injury that is done towards the
end o f autumn to this valuable crop by birds is so great, that; the farmer of the watery district is
necessitated nightly to dispatch boats with-fire-arms to scare them away. As the evening begins to
close, one sees clouds of Starlings * (Stumus vulgaris) approaching from various quarters, in numbers
that exceed all belief, to pass the night in the reeds, and lighting in myriads, like the locust of the
east, upon this flexible plant, crush it to the water, and one sees Iaige patches lodged, and beat down
like grain after a storm: though the guns o f the boat-men sweep them away by hundreds, the survivors
are so drowsy that they remain stationary, or move only a few yards from the bodies o f their
slaughtered companions, and return on the ensuing evening in numbers not apparently diminished,
and wrth a total oblivion o f the carnage of the preceding night.---------The panicle o f this Arundo continues
through the winter, and in the marshes of Erith, in Kent, is resorted to in that season by that
very rare bird Parus barbatus, to seek for in them either the minute seeds they may contain, or the
insects that have sought an asylum there.
A, a young Branch with' the woolly joints and unexpanded florets.
B, the Calyx and six Florets (which it sometimes contains) unexpanded.
C, the Calyx.
D, a Floret detached, shewing the situation o f the wool upon the individual receptacle.
* There is reason to think that the Starling migrates from other countries into England towards the commencement
of rte,, tht, kingdom never breeds the myriads that collect to roost on Arundo Phragmites: the former, of the districts
have assured us that they commonly destroy bushels of a nightll-Foies and other vermin assemble in the reed,, to fatten
upon the poor Starling, which they either find asleep, or disabled by the fire of the night-men.