144 



GRAMINEAE 



2 to 4 inches high; blades % to 1^ inches long; panicles mostly simple, of 

 rather few lanceolate-oblong spikelets, the fertile inflorescence tending to be 

 capitate; spikelets 10 to 35-flowered, 2 l /2 to 7 lines long, the flowers more or less 

 dioecious. 



Sand bars and wet shores of rivers and lakes, throughout the U. S. and south 



to South America. 



Locs. Mendocino, Brown 928; Lower Sacramento, Jepson in 1891; Lathrop, Bioletti 144; 

 Clear Lake, Pringle in 1882; Los Angeles, Nevin. 



Refs. ERAGROSTIS HYPNOIDES B.S.P. Prel. Cat. N. Y. 69. 1888 ; Davy in Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. 

 Cal. 60. 1901. Poa hypnoides Lam. Tabl. Eneycl. 1: 185. 1791. Eragrostis reptans Nees, 

 Agrost. Bras. 514. 1829; Thurb. in Wats. Bot. Cal. 2: 314. 1880. 



51. ANTHOCHLOA Nees & Meyen. 



Spikelets several-flowered, in capitate or cylindrical panicles. Glumes small 

 or wanting. Lemmas thin-membranaceous, flabelliform, or petal-like, many- 

 nerved. Palea narrower than the lemma, hyaline. Low cespitose grasses with 

 flat blades and panicles partially included in the sheaths. Species 3, Andes of 

 Bolivia and Peru, 1 in California. (Greek anthos, flower, and chloa, grass.) 



1. A. colusana Scribn. Annual ; culms ascending from a decumbent base, 



3 to 12 inches long; leaves overlapping, pale green, scarious between the 

 nerves, loosely folded around the culm but not differentiated into sheath and 

 blade, about 6 lines wide at the middle, tapering to each end, 2 to 4 inches 

 long, keeled on the back above, plicate, minutely ciliate with raised glands on 

 the margins and nerves ; panicles pale green, cylindrical, at first partially in- 

 cluded, never much exserted, 1% to 3 inches long, 4 to 6 lines wide, the upper 

 portion of the axis bearing, instead of spikelets, lanceolate-linear empty bracts 



4 lines long; spikelets subsessile, usually 5-flowered, 3 to 3^ lines long, imbri- 

 cated; glumes wanting; lemmas flabellate, very broad, many-nerved. 2 1 /2 lines 

 long, ciliolate-fringed. 



Only known from the type collection, "near Princeton, Colusa County, Cali- 

 fornia, bordering rain-pools on the hard uncultivated alkali 'goose-lands,' beside 

 the stage road to Norman; May 26, 1898, J. Burtt Davy." 



Eefs. ANTHOCHLOA COLUSANA Scribn. U. S. Dept. Agr. Div. Agrost. Bull. 17: 221. f. 

 517. 1899. Stapfia colusana Davy, Erythea 6: 110. pi. 3. 1898. Neostapfia colusana Davy, 

 Erythea 7: 43. 1899. 



52. MELICA L. 



Spikelets 2 to several-flowered, in panicles. Glumes large, unequal, mem- 

 branaceous or papery, scarious-margined, 3 to 5-nerved, awnless, a little shorter 

 than the florets. Rachilla prolonged beyond the uppermost fertile floret and 

 bearing 2 or 3 gradually smaller empty lemmas more or less convolute and en- 

 closing one another at the apex. Lemmas firm with scarious margins, 7-nerved, 

 awnless, or awned below the bifid apex. Perennials, often bulbous at base, with 

 closed sheaths and usually few-flowered panicles. Species about 30 in tem- 

 perate regions. (An old Italian name for sorghum, from mel, honey.) 

 Spikelets narrow; glumes usually narrow, scarious margined; sterile lemmas similar to the 

 fertile, the latter acute or awned. 



Lemmas long-awned 1. M . ari-Ktata. 



Lemmas awnless or very short-awned. 



Culms not bulbous at base 2. M. harfordii. 



Culms bulbous at base. 



Lemmas acuminate; panicle narrow, the branches short 3. M. subulata. 



Lemmas acute, not acuminate; panicle broad, the branches long and spreading 



4. M. geyeri. 



