A R U N D O Phragmites.
Common Reed.
T R I A N D R IA Digynia.
Gen. Char. Cal. of a valves. Florets furrounded
with long down.
Spec. Char. Calyx containing five florets. Panicle
loofe.
Syn. Arundo Phragmites. Linn. Sp. PI. 12,0. Hudf.
FI. A n . 53. m m . Bot. A r r . xi 6. Re lb. Cant.
5 1 . Sibth. Ox. 50.
A . vallatoria. Rati Syn. 401.
N o t h i n g can be more common than the reed here repre-
fented, in ditches, ponds, and the margins of rivers, where it
flowers in the middle of fummer, after which its waving filvery
plumes, confifting o f long down remaining in the brown hulks
of the calyx, continue to ornament many a dreary fen throughout
the autumn, lifting their heads high above all other herbage,
till their dry ftalks are cut for thatching or fome fuch ufe. They
are for no purpofe more ufeful, than to make warm Iheltered
cnclofures for a kitchen garden.
The roots are perennial, running far into the mud. Straws
annual, about 6 feet high, ere£l, round, jointed, very fmooth,
leafy. Leaves alternate, long, lanceolate, tapering to a fine
point, ftriated, fmoother and paler beneath, their edges a little
rough; their bafes fheathing the ftraw and each other, and
crowned with an extremely lhort jagged ftipula, accompanied
on each fide by a fmall portion of filky down. Panicle nearly
ere£t when in flower, purplilh, but after impregnation its
branches become more loofe and drooping. The calyx-valves
are unequal, containing about five flowers (fometimes fewer)
placed in two ranks upon a fmall Italic, Corolla of two valves,
one of them very long and pointed, to the bafe of which is attached
externally a tuft of long foft flender hairs, which are
lengthened after flowering, and, fpreading in every direction,
give the feathery appearance above mentioned. The ftamina are
very flender. Styles reflexed, with thick tufted ftigmas.