POACEAE. 35 



19. NOTHOLCUS Nash. Velvet-grass. 



Annual or perennial grasses with flat leaves and spike- 

 like or open panicles. Spikelets deciduous, 2-flowered'; 

 lower flowers perfect, upper staminate. Glumes 4; the 

 2 lower empty, membranous, keeled, the first 1-nerved, 

 the second 3-nerved and often short awned; flowering 

 glumes chartaceous, the upper ones bearing a bent awn. 

 Palea narrow, 2-keeled. Stamens 3. Styles distinct. 

 Grain oblong, enclosed in the glume. 



1. N. lanatus (L.) Nash. Densely and softly pubescent through- 

 out; culms 4-6 dm. high, erect, often decumbent at the base, simple; 

 sheaths shorter than the internodes; ligule 1-2 mm. long; leaves 

 3-8 cm. long, 4-10 mm. wide; spikelets 4 mm. long; empty glumes 

 white-villous, the upper awn-pointed; flowering glumes 2 mm. long, 

 smooth and shining, the lower sparsely ciliate on the keel, some- 

 what obtuse, the upper 2-toothed and bearing a hooked awn below 

 the apex. {Holcus lanatus L.) 



Santa Anita and Oak Knoll, Mc Clatchie, Davidson. 



20. DESCHAMPSIA Beauv. Hair-grass. 



Annual or perennial grasses with flat or convolute 

 leaves and contracted or open panicles. Spikelets 2- 

 flowered; both flowers perfect, the hairy rachilla ex- 

 tended beyond or rarely terminated by a staminate one. 

 Glumes 4, the 2 outer empty, keeled, acute, membranous, 

 shining, persistent; the flowering glumes similar in tex- 

 ture, deciduous, bearing a dorsal awn, toothed at the 

 apex. Palea narrow. Stamens 3. Styles distinct. 

 Grain oblong, free and enclosed in the glume. 



1. D. calycina Presl. Annual; culms slender, 1-6 dm. high; 

 sheaths smooth; leaves few, 3-6 cm. long, 1 mm. wide or less; 

 panicle spreading, about \ the length of the culms, bearing 1-5 

 spikelets above the middle, the lowest of which are on spreading 

 pedicels; spikelets 2-flowered; empty glumes about 7-8 mm. long, 

 hairy below, shining above, 5-nerved, emarginate with 4 minute 

 ciliate teeth; awn inserted below the middle, about 6 mm. long, 

 bent near the middle and twisted below. 



Occasional on dry mesas or in open places in the foothills and 

 mountains. 



2. D. gracilis Vasey. Annual; culms 3-6 dm. high; blades usually 

 filiform; panicle open, 8-20 cm. long, the branches slender, rather 

 densely flowered toward the end, naked below; glumes 4-6 mm, 

 long, the lower 3-nerved. 



San Gabriel, according to Hitchcock. 



