REED, the common English name of certain tall grasses, growing in moist or marshy rilaces, and having a very hard or almost woody culto, The COMMON REED (phragmites eommunis, formerly arundo phragmites) is abundant in Britain and continental Europe, in wet meridows and stagnant waters, and by the banks of rivers ail ditches. It grows chiefly in rich alluvial soils. The cubits are 5 to 10 ft. high, and bear at the top a large much-branched panicle of a reddish-brown or yellowish color, having a shining appear Alice, from numerous long silky hairs which spring from the base of the spikelets. The wo:outer glumes are very unequal; and the spikelet contains 3 to 4 perfect florets, with a 'barren one at the base. The mints, or stems, are used for making garden screens, for light fences, for thatching houses and fa•m-buildings, for making a framework to be covered with clay in partitions and floors, for battens of weavers' shuttles, etc. So use ful are reeds in these ways, and particularly for thatching, that it is found profitable in some places to plant them in old clay-pits, etc. Probably they might he planted with advantage in many peat-mosses, where they are now unknown. The plant is not very
common in Scotland; but in the fenny districts of the e. of England it covers large tracts called reed-ronds, and similar tracts occur in many parts of Europe.—Nearly allied to this is aruado dona.r, the largest of European grasses, plentiful in the e. of Europe, and found in marshy places as far n. as the s. of the Tyrol and of Switzer Lind. It is 6 to 12 ft. high, and has very thick, hollow, woody calms, and a purplish yellow panicle, silvery nod shining from silky hairs. The woody stems are an article of commerce, and are used by musical instrument makers for reeds of clarionets, mouth pieces of oboes, etc. They are also made into walking-sticks and fishing-rods. The creeping roots contain much farina and some sugar.—Arunde karka, is supposed to be the grass called sun in Slade, of which the flower-stalks are very fibrous; and the fibers, being partially separated by beating, are twisted into twine and ropes.—The SEA REED is amniophila (q. v.)—or psamina---arundinacea.