ELYMUS arenarius.
Upright Sea Lyme-grass.
TRIANDRIA Digynia.
G en. Char. Cal. lateral, aggregate, of 2 valves, containing
(mostly) several flowers.
Spec. C har. Spike upright,1 close. Calyx lanceolate,
the length of the spikelets. Leaves with a spinous
point. *
Syn. Elymus arenarius. Linn. Sp. P l. 122. Sm. FI.
B rit. 152. Huds. 56. W ith. 170. Hull. 27.
Mart. Rust. t. 31. Knapp, t. 108.
Spartum herba 4 Batavicum. Clus. Hist. 2. 221.
O n e o f the most valuable creeping-rooted grasses for binding
the loose sand on the sea shore, in which its roots run to a
very great fextent. See p. 520 and 928 for remarks on 'this
subject. , CT> .. • ■
Elymus arenarius is found on the sandy coasts of Britain in
various places, but does ’not often produce spikes. On the
north side of Norfolk, at Wells, Mundesley, &c. it is abundant.
Roots brought from thence by Mr. Crowe many years
ago, and planted on a gravelly bank at Lakenham, have greatly
increased, and blossom more or less plentifully every year in
July. From these our specimen was procured. 1 he stem
is 3 or 4 feet high, erect, strong, round, very smooth, striated,
most leafy at the base. Leaves hard and rigid, long, involute,
spinous-pointed, very glaucous; marked on the upper side
with strong rough furrows; smooth beneath. Stipula very short,
by which the plant may at any time be distinguished from
Arundo arenaria. Spike erect, dense, glaucous, not halt so
long as that of E . geniciilatus, I 1586, from which it is also
known by the greater proportionable breadth of its calyx-
valves, which do not exceed the spikelets in length, and moreover,
as Mr. Sowerby observes, by not having the common
stalk of its spike bordered or winged as in that species.