Sea Lyme Grass

Members of this genus have proved their usefulness in many ways.

The stems have been used for thatching and have been formed into a coarse fabric; the seeds have furnished an article of food to primitive tribes; and even so long ago as the eighteenth century a saline species with extensively creeping rootstocks was cultivated in Europe to preserve the shifting sands of northern coasts.

In the reign of William III, the Scottish Parliament passed an act for the preservation of Sea Lyme-grass (Elymus arenarius); later, in the time of George I, the British Parliament extended the operation of this law to the coasts of England, and made it a penal offence for a person to cut the grass or to be found in possession of it within eight miles of the coast.

This species, the Sea Lyme-grass, is found in America, but only on the colder shores, where it is as valuable as the Marram Grass which it somewhat resembles.