314 GRAMINE^E. Poa. 



tliat it does not well agree with the generic characters. It is apparently the type of a distinct 

 genus, but in the absence of fruiting specimens it seems better to leave it as an anomalous Poa. 

 Should it prove to be generically distinct, then to avoid the multiplication of names there seems 

 to be no objection to adopting Arctopoa, Griseb. None of the specimens have stamens, and the re- 

 markable development of stigmas, which much exceed the palet and are broad as well as long, 

 makes it probable that the plant will prove to be direcious. The very long and lacerate scales, as 

 well as the hairy ovary, are unlike those in both Glyceria and Poa. The panicle is pale straw- 

 color with an occasional faint tinge of purple. The leaves are very pale green, dry and rigid, 

 flat except towards the apex, and with a barely perceptible roughness. 



3. Spikelets dioecious, in dense ovate heads : perennials, with long slender root- 

 stoclis, growing in shifting sands on the coast. 



10. P. Douglasii, Nees. Culms slender, often branched below and clothed 

 with numerous marcescent sheaths, 6 to 12 inches high : radical leaves numerous, 

 setaceously convolute, smooth, soft, mostly exceeding the culm ; culm leaves two to 

 five, the uppermost 2 to 4 inches long, less closely convolute, rarely flat at base, 

 striately many-nerved and finely pubescent above ; upper ligule about a line long, 

 truncate ; sheaths crowded below, the upper very loose : panicle 1 or 2 inches long, 

 often included at the unequal base ; spikelets 3 - 5-flowered, broadly ovate, flattened, 

 4 lines long and when in flower as broad : glumes ^ shorter than the florets, acute, 

 ciliate on the keel, sometimes on the margin : lower palet 3 lines long, lanceolate, 

 acute, the midnerve often mucronate-excurrent, indistinctly 5-nerved, the keel 

 ciliate-pubescent above and with the marginal nerves softly hairy and more or less 

 crisped-woolly below ; upper palet about equal, ciliate : staminate florets with im- 

 perfect ovaries ; pistillate florets with one or more abortive stamens : scales very 

 acute : ovary long-stipitate ; styles thick at base ; stigmas nearly sessile, very broad 

 below with longer hairs. Ann. Nat. Hist. 1st ser. i. 284. P. Californica, Steud. 

 Syn. Gram. 261. Brizopyrum Douglasii, Hook. & Arn. Bot. Beeehey, 404; Torr. 

 in Pacif. R Rep. iv. 157. 



San Francisco and Bolinas Bay (Bolander) ; Monterey Bay (Parry) ; elsewhere on the coast, 

 Douglas, Coulter. The rhizomes, though scarcely larger than a pack-thread, are wonderfully 

 tenacious ; they run to a great distance, branching freely, and with their abundant clusters of 

 leaves and flowering stems, do excellent service in binding the blowing sands. The heads in shape 

 and color have a strong resemblance to those of Canary-Grass (Phalaris Canariensis). The stami- 

 nate heads are usually rather smaller and lighter colored than the pistillate, which are of a very 

 pale green. The height above given is for the culms above the rootstocks, but half or two-thirds 

 of that is beneath the surface of the sand. In separating this from Poa, to which Nees originally 

 referred it, and placing it in Brizopyrum, Hooker & Arnott must have relied mainly upon its 

 dioecious character, and could not have compared the ovaries, styles, etc., as they are widely dif- 

 ferent. In Distichlis (Brizopyrum) the styles are unusually elongated, naked for a long distance 

 below and stigmatic with short hairs near the apex ; the upper palet is convolute above, forming 

 a channel through which they are exserted, while in this species they are exserted near the base 

 of the palet. The scales also in Distichlis are broadly truncate, with the upper margin 2- or 3-lobed 

 or notched, and the ovary is sessile. 



61. ERAGROSTIS, Beauv. 



Panicle spreading or narrow or variously clustered. Spikelets few - many- (2 - 70-) 

 flowered, compressed-flattened. Glumes shorter than the florets, 1 -nerved. Lower 

 palet herbaceous, 3-nerved, unawned ; upper palet shorter, prominently 2-keeled, 

 persistent upon the rhachis after the rest of the flower has fallen. Stamens 3, with 

 short filaments. Scales 2, subcuneate. Styles 2, elongated, plumose above. Seed 

 ovoid or oblong, not furrowed, free. Mostly annuals with narrow convolute leaves 

 and sheaths often hairy-bearded at the throat. 



A large genus in warm and temperate regions. Formerly included in Poa, from which it differs 

 in its 3-nerved lower palet, which is without webby hairs, and in the persistent upper palet. 



1 . E. reptans, Xees. Culms prostrate, creeping, much branched from an awned 

 root : leaves short, about an inch long, subulate-pointed and smooth or with the 



