TRITICUM JUNCEUM.{%t.Pta
Sea Wheat.
Spec. Chab. Calyx blunts with five florets; leaves rolled inwards, and sharp pointed. Eng. Bot.
T b it ic um ju n c eum is a m aritime p lan t, vegetating freely above h ig h w ater-m ark , amidst th e dry sands,
in many places upon our sea shores, where it is frequently buried in the drifts.------ Its straw is firm,
and almost woody, and the foliage participates o f its hardness; the roots are strong, and by penetrating
deeply, and creeping under the sand, it is enabled to exist in very dry situations ; the whole
plant is of a glaucous tint, and the foliage seems too rigid to expand; the sheathing partakes of the
colour o f the soil in which it vegetates, and the issuing spikes and base o f the straw generally are
tinted with pink upon their emerging from the sheath.------Triticum junceum is probably one o f those
plants designed by nature as a fetter to the driving sands, which occasionally inundate and destroy
large districts; its destructive deluge, during the prevalence of certain winds, fills up rivers, or alters
the beds o f their channels: at Yarmouth, upon the coast of Norfolk, we have seen the and
palisades o f the forts upon the Denes buried to the depth of ten feet or more: and though not so
efficacious and powerful, it is no despicable auxiliary to the Arundo arenaria, in that important department;
and under which species the virtues of the arenaceous plants have been more fully shewn.
A , the Calyx.
B, the valves o f the Corolla.