Gene. Char. Calyx lateral, with two valves, several together, with many florets. Gen. Plant.
ELYMUS ARENARIUS.{ Spec. Plant.
Great Mat-grass,
Spec. Char. Spike upright, but a little bowed; calyx woolly, and shorter than the spicula.
Elymus arenarius is one of the- noblest of the’British grasses, and presents itself to the observation
as, strongly as any plant we possess, for independent of its altitude, which is commonly four or five
feet, the extraordinary blueness of the inner surface o f the leaves renders it manifest at a considerable
distance: inhabiting the same situations as Arundo arenaria, it has at times been mistaken for that
plant, but, even before a spike is produced, the foliage alone will detect the species. Leaves flat,
broadish, not rolled up, and serrated on the edges.;------- The great and obvious utility of the larger
repent arenaceous plants has been shewn under the head o f Arundo arenaria, but this Elymus, from
the superior strength of its roots, and distance which they trail along the sand, affords a more powerful
resistance to the drifting sands than any plant we are possessed of.--------- This fine Mat-grass
is not the promiscuous produce of all our sea shores, but we find it attached only to a very few places,
and we may examine an hundred miles o f the coast without finding a specimen; we have seen it in
Norfolk, and at the mouth of the Tees in Durham (called the snook of Seaton) it abounds, and
producing in that situation a larger number of spikes than we have observed in any other.
A, the Calyx and its Florets.
B, the Calyx.
C, the Corolla,