274 MISC. PUBLICATION 200, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



1. Lepturus cylindricus (Willd.) Trin. Thintail. (Fig. 537.) 

 Annual; culms bushy-branched, spreading or prostrate, 10 to 30 cm 

 tall; spike curved, narrowed upward; glume 6 mm long, acuminate; 

 lemma 5 mm long, pointed; axis disarticulating at maturity, the 

 spikelets remaining attached to the joints, o — Salt marshes, 

 San Francisco Bay, Calif., south to San Diego and Santa Catalina 

 Island; introduced from the Old World. 



49. PHOLIURUS Trin. 



Spikelets 1- or 2-flowered, embedded in the cylindric articulate 

 rachis and falling attached to the joints; glumes two, placed in front 

 of the spikelet and enclosing it, cori- 

 aceous, 5-nerved, acute, asymmetric, 

 appearing like halves of a single split 

 glume; lemma with its back to the 

 rachis, smaller than the glumes, hya- 

 line, 1-nerved; palea a little shorter 



Figure 538.— Pholiurus incurvus. Plant, X Vi\ rachis joint and spikelet, X 5. (Trask, Calif.) 



than the lemma, hyaline. Low annuals, with slender cylindric spikes. 

 Type species, Pholiurus pannonica (Host) Trin. Name from Greek 

 pholis, horny scale, and oura, tail, alluding to 

 the coriaceous spikes. 



1. Pholiurus incurvus (L.) Schinz and 

 Thell. Sickle grass. (Fig. 538.) Culms 

 tufted, decumbent at base, 10 to 20 cm tall; 

 blades short, narrow; spike 7 to 10 cm long, 

 cylindric, curved ; spikelets 7 mm long, pointed. 

 G (P. incurvatus Hitchc.) — Mud flats and 

 salt marshes along the coast, New Jersey to Virginia; California; 

 Portland, Oreg. (fig. 539) ; introduced from Europe. 



Figure 539. — Distribution of 



Pholiurus incurvus. 



