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C Spec. Plant. ARUNDO EPIGEJOS.
IVood Reed.
Spec. Char. Panicle branched; calyx with one flower; arista from the back of the larger
floret valve.
Attuttno epigejos is by no means an aquatic plant, but it is not uncommonly found in hedges, and on
very dry ditch banks; the panicle, when young, is of a dull green, afterwards changing to straw-
colour, in which state it remains attached to the culm till the winter, or is dispersed by the stormy
winds o f November: the usual altitude, of the Wood Reed is four or five feet, with long narrow leaves,
rough at the edges; the down at the base of the floret is abundant, as long as the valves, and so
envelope the whole, that it is with some difficulty we distinguish the arista.------A strong rib divides
the leaves of this plant, one side of which we find scored and rough, and the other smooth and
shining; this circumstance however ceases when the leaves become dry: it is not peculiar to Arundo
epigejos, but may be found to exist in another instance, in the broad foliage of Festuca pratensis:
when the seed is matured the wool at the base of the florets expands, andfencircles them like rays from
a shining body.______Universally scattered over the midland counties as is this Arundo, yet we have
never observed it in Scotland, and not commonly in the northern parts * of England.
A, part of a Leaf, shewing the rough and smooth parts.
B, the Calyx.
C, the valves of the Corolla.
D, the matured Seed, wrapped in the floret valves, and the wool radiating from the base.
* Dr. Withering, mentioning the habitations of the small Reed, gives us as one of its stations Castle Eden-dean,
Durham; we have seen A. epigejos in several places of those romantic woods, but never found a specimen of A. calama-
grostis.