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AGROSTIS LITTORALIS. { BaL
Marine Bent-grass.
Spec. Char. Panicle branched, and expanding but little; calyx, both valves furnished with an arista
o f about thé length o f the valve; corolla of two unequal valves, the larger with an arista o f full
its own length; panicle coloured.
Perhaps we have few Of our British grasses become more rare or less noticed than Agrostis littoralis.
It was first introduced into our Flora by Dr. Withering, in his Botanical Arrangements, as being found
at Wells, in Norfolk; since which time we understood it has disappeared from that station: others are
said to have observed it at Cley, in the same neighbourhood, where several have sought it in vain;
we are enabled however to give a decided habitat (and perhaps the only English one known) to this
elegant Agrostis, it having been found at Erith, in Kent, by Mr. Howarth, which gentleman was kind
enough to communicate such information to us, that though we apprehend we failed in meeting with
his identical situation, yet by that means w e found it in another.*------Dr. Withering once considered
this Agrostis and Alopecurus monspeliensis o f the Spec. Plant. (Phieum crinitum of Schreber) as the
same species, and though he rejected this idea in his last edition, yet still some confusion remains;
he observes of Agroitis littoralis, ‘ awns three times as long as the calyx husks, blossom awnless!’
The length of the aristae is partly just, had he been describing Alop. monspel. but by no means so
when we regard Agros. littor.----------This species of Agrostis is very strongly marked, and,- like Spicayenti,
cannot be confounded with any other of the genus, and the calyx being furnished with an arista
to each valve, o f about their own length, is an infallible criterion. Plant trailing, and abundantly
stoloniferous (we speak o f it as a marsh plant,, where alone we have seen it indigenous). Panicle
closed, and spike-like, when young, but the branches become a little expanded at the time of the
appearance of the antherae, and in both states it is tinted with a dusky purple hue, changing in age
to a dirty straw colour. Leaves and sheathing rough.------Agrostis littoralis has not been apparently
noticed by the continental botanists, at least we know o f no representation o f it in any foreign
publication, yet it is certainly produced in other countries than Britain, as we have seen specimens
from the ballast hills, Sunderland (see Elymus geniculatus), where this plant has been conveyed from
a distant shore, and vegetated in that station. Agrostis littoralis, in places where it does not become
profusely stoloniferous, may produce and mature its seed, but in our plants, though we could find
the germin in the flowering specimens, we could obtain no seed from the aged panicles perfected for
vegetation.
A, the Calyx.
B, the Corolla.
C, the Corolla more enlarged.
* Perhaps we may not be censured for pointing out exactly the station of this rare plant, as we spent three days in
the search for it. In a grassy field in which the magazine stands will be found a morassy place, filled with the Aster
tripolium; at the edge of this morass, on the side next the high bank of the ditch (which divides it from another fenny
meadow), we found, rather plentifully, A. littoralis.