ELYMUS geniculatus.
Pendulous Sea Lyme-grass.
TRIANDRIA Digynia.
G en. Char. Cal. lateral, aggregate, of 2 valves, con-
taining (mostly) several flowers.
Spec. Char. Spike bent perpendicularly downward,
loose. C a ly x bristle-shaped, spreading, longer than
the spikelets. Leaves with a spinous point.
Syn. Elymus geniculatus. Curt. Brit. Grasses, 46.
Sm. FI. Brit. 153. Knapp, t. 109.
Elymus. Linn. Am. Acad. v. 7» 192 . t. 2 . f . 5.
With. v. 1. 134. t. 2 .ƒ . 26.
D i s c o v e r e d in marshes near Gravesend by M r. Dickson.
Mr. Curtis first made it known to the botanical world as
distinct from E . arenarius, for even Linnaeus seems to have
confounded them. Our specimen grew in the Liverpool
garden. July is the season of its flowering.
Root perennial, downy. Herb glaucous. Leaves hard and
rigid, long, narrow, involute, furrowed above, smooth beneath,
ending in a sharp 3 4 spine. Stipula very short. Stem
round, very smooth, or feet high, ending in a simple lax
spike, a foot and half or 2 feet in length, remarkable for
being, in the course of its flowering, bent down at an acute
angle, about the second or third spikelet, and so becoming
perfectly pendulous, nor can it be unbent without breaking.
Calyx-glumes very narrow and tapering, smooth, commonly
about half as long 3 again 4 as the spikelets they enfold, each of
which consists of or alternate downy florets, standing on
a stalk which is sometimes elongated and naked.