308 GRAMINE^E. Glyceria. 



oblong, 5 - 7-flowerecl, 1 or 2 lines long, sometimes purplish : florets about a line 

 long, closely imbricated, early caducous : lower palet prominently 7-nerved, fine- 

 scabrous, strongly convex near the truncate-obtuse apex ; upper palet about as long 

 as the other, minutely 2-toothed at apex, the margins broad and infolded. Poet 

 nervata, Willd. P. striata, Michx. Briza Canadensis, Nutt. Gen. i. 69, not of 

 Suppl. G. Michauxii, Kunth. 



In Mendocino County and in the Sierra Nevada (Bolander, n. 2256, 3908) ; Big Tree Grove 

 (Hillebrand) ; Oregon, etc. Found in moist meadows and along water-courses from the extreme 

 east westward. Sometimes called "Fowl Meadow-Grass," a name which should not be used 1'or 

 this grass, as it properly belongs to Poa serotina. It is regarded as a valuable component of moist 

 pastures. 



3. G-. paucifiora, Presl. Culms 1 to 3 feet high from a creeping root, smooth : 

 leaves 3 to 12 inches long, 3 to 6 lines wide, acute, scabrous on the margin ; ligule 

 about 3 lines long, rounded, obtuse, but soon lacerate ; sheaths split, slightly longer 

 than the internodes : panicle 6 to 8 inches long, loose, its capillary branches in threes 

 below, in pairs above, flower-bearing from near the middle ; spikelets 2 to 2i lines 

 long, 4 - 6-flowered : lower glume acute, 1-nerved ; upper rounded, 3-nerved, less 

 than half as long as its floret : lower palet rather more than a line long, prominently 

 5-nerved, scabrous, truncate-obtuse at the scarious tip, which is serrulate or distinctly 

 toothed, more or less purplish. Rel. Hasnk. i. 257 ; Watson, Bot. King Exped. 

 384. G. microtheca and G. leptostachya, Buckley, Proc. Philad. Acad. 1862, 95, 96. 



From San Francisco (Bolandcr) to Washington Territory and Vancouver Island, and in the 

 Rocky Mountains southward to Utah and Colorado. 



49. ATROPIS, Rupr. 



Panicle contracted, at least with age. Spikelets few - many-flowered. Glumes 

 3-nerved, or the lower irregularly so or 1-nerved, much shorter than the lower florets. 

 Lower palet chartaceous or membranaceous, rarely herbaceous, convex or flattish on 

 the back, sometimes partially keeled, faintly 5-nerved, all but the midnerve vanish- 

 ing at some distance below the broadly scarious and mostly obtuse often mucronu- 

 late or denticulate apex. Upper palet with converging ciliolate nerves and a 

 2-toothed or bifid apex. Stamens 3. Scales ovate, toothed on the outer margin. 

 Styles short, the subsessile stigmas with simple hairs. Grain free, obscurely grooved. 

 Griseb. Fl. Ross. iv. 388. Sclerochloa, Beauv. Poa Atropis, Trin. Glyceria 

 Heleochloa, Fries. Glyceria Sclerochloa, Hook. f. 



A small genus of perennials and annuals, differing from Poa especially in the rounded lower 

 palet, and from Glyceria in the less prominently nerved lower palet and the simple hairs of its 

 nearly sessile stigma. One of our species is usually (always ?) dicc.cious. 



1. A. distans, Griseb. Culms tufted from a perennial root, -J to 2 feet high : 

 leaves short and narrow, mostly convolute and with the sheaths mostly glaucous and 

 smooth, save a very minute roughness near the apex ; ligule oblong, distinct : pani- 

 cle very variable, erect, narrow and one-sided, spreading or with age even refracted, 

 its rays in fives or fewer ; spikelets 3 to 6 lines long, 3 - 12-flowered ; florets mostly 

 somewhat distant : glumes much shorter than their florets, from narrow and acute to 

 broad and obtuse, sometimes irregularly ciliate above, 3-nerved or the lower 1-nerved : 

 lower palet oblong-linear, 1 to 1 lines long, minutely pubescent at base, the lateral 

 nerves one-fourth shorter, apex truncate, erose-toothed or subacute. Ledeb. Fl. 

 Ross. iv. 388. A. maritima, A. anyustata, and probably also A. convoluta and 

 A. tenuiflora, Griseb. 1. c. Poa airoides, Nutt. P. Nuttalliana, Schult. P. Nut- 

 Tcaensis, Presl. Glyceria distans, maritima and festucceformis, Reichenb. Icon. Fl. 

 Germ. t. 151, 152. G. angustata and G. airoides, Thurb. Bot. Wilkes Exp. 490, 

 491. G. montana, Buckl. 



