Reed,

Reed, the common English name of certain tall grasses, growing in moist or marshy places, and having a very hard or almost woody culm. The Common Reed (Phragmites communis, formerly Arundo Phragmites) is abundant in Britain and continental Europe, in wet meadows and stagnant waters, and by the banks of rivers and ditches. It grows chiefly in rich alluvial soils. The culms are 5 to 10 feet high, and bear at the top a large, much-branched panicle, of a reddish-brown or yellowish colour, having a shining appearance, from numerous long silky hairs which spring from the base of the spikelets. The two outer glumes are very unequal; and the spikelet contains 3 to 4 perfect florets, with a barren one at the base. The culms, or stems, are used for making garden-screens, for light fences, for thatching houses and farm-buildings, for making a framework to be covered with clay in partitions and floors, for battens of weavers' shuttles, &c. So useful are reeds in these ways, and particularly for thatching, that it is found profitable in some places to plant them in old clay-pits, &c. Probably they might be 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 east of England it covers large tracts called reed-ronds, and similar tracts occur in many parts of Europe. Nearly allied to this is Arundo donax, the largest of European grasses, plentiful in the south of Europe, and found in marshy places as far north as the south of the Tyrol and of Switzerland. It is 6 to 12 feet high, and has very thick, hollow, woody culms, and a purplish-yellow panicle, silvery and 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, &c. They are also made into walking-sticks and fishing-rods; and see the article WRITING. The creeping roots contain much farina and some sugar. Of Arundo Karika (called Sur in Sind) the flower-stalks are very fibrous; and the fibres, being partially separated by beating, are twisted into twine and ropes. The Sea Reed is Ammophila (q.v.)—or Psamma—arundinacea.