' TLA Fodder
R O T B O L L I A.
-HE' C h a k . Calyx sitting, containing one floret, .simple or cleft; florets alternate, on
a jointed common receptacle.
ROTBOLLIA INCURVATA.j ^ G tL O P S INCURv. Sp. Plant.
f Hudson.
Sea Rush-grass.
Spec. Chas. One British species only.
Rotbollia must not be considered as one o f our rarest plants, yet perhaps is as little noticed as
any o f pur grasses, its situation, and a certain similitude to the Jnnci (Rushes) are the causes that it
is so frequently passed by, but the little white or buff-coloured anther*, which break the cylindrical
uniformity of the spike, immediately betray it'------Sea Rush-grass is found about the months of June
or July; wado not see its straw and empty glumes ' waving to the wintery gale,' like many of the
pasture and vagrant grasses, but it vegetates, and is soon sought for in vain: each joint contains a
corolla, and its seed, Which early turns brown, breaks from the spike, and is received into the earth,
and forms in the ensuing summer a young colony around the parent station; and hence we do not
And Rotbollia a wandering plant, like those whose seeds are dispersed by winds, or other causes, but
local, and in patches of no great extent; growing freely and uninterruptedly, it assumes a form similar
to the representation, but when cropped by cattle, or in exposed situations where it is much trodden
upon, it reclines upon the earth, and becomes clustered at the base.--------- This grass is entirely a
maritime one, but though not absolutely peculiar to sea marshes, is perhaps never found far from
those stations, within a certain influence o f the tide, by which it is occasionally submersed; the yellowness
of its foliage is the effect of salt water, not drought;: its spike is usually incurved, and the
calyx expands when the anther* are matured, and closes again when the purport of nature has been
answered. This genus was thus named by the younger Linnaeus, in compliment to professor
Rotboll, of Copenhagen.
A, a part o f the Spike.
B, the Calyx expanding, shewing the corolla
C, the Corolla.