326 GRAMINE.E. Ehjmus. 



front of each spikelet, together forming an invohicre to the chister. Lower palet 

 mostly coriaceous, 5-nervetl, rounded on the hack, acute or awned at apex, stamens 3. 

 ^Scales ovate, usually ciliate. Ovary hairy : stigmas sessile or nearly so, distant. 

 Grain adherent to the palets. 



A genus of pfiemiials belonj^ing to northern temperate regions, the miinber of species about 25. 



* Glumes shorter t/uiii the sp'ihelet : lower jmlet cuspidate, or (in one variety) 

 awn-poiiited, hut not lony-aivned. 



1. E. arenarius, Linn. Culms 3 to 8 feet high, glaucons : leaves strict, acumi- 

 nate, pungent, G lines broad, uppermost very short; sheaths auriculate at throat; 

 ligule very brief: spike G to 12 inches long, dense, strict, the rhachis hirsute; spike- 

 lets an inch long, closely imbricated, appressed, pubescent, awnless, mostly 3-How- 

 ered : glumes acuminate, 3-5-nerved : lower palet keeled toward the cuspidate tip, 

 hirsute, ciliate, the upper equalling it. — Iveichenb. Icon. Fl. Germ. t. IIG; Torr. in 

 Pacif. R Rep. vi. 92. 



Pitt River {Newberry) ; Oregon {Pickerhuj) ; Washington Territory, Cooper. Reported as com- 

 mon in the northern parts of tlie State ; not found in the Eastern States, but common in Europe 

 and nortliern Asia. The spikes are sometimes purplisli. Tlie seeds are used as food by the 

 Digger Indians, and as it springs uj) around deserted lodges is called by the inhabitants " Ran- 

 dieria-Grass." E. mollis, Trin. (not of R. Br.), closely resembles this, and is found far northward 

 and also eastward. It is distinguished by its softer and more downy spikelets, and its much 

 broader 5 - 7-nerved glumes. 



2. E. COndensatUS, Presl. Culms from 2 to 6 feet high or more, with ample 

 mostly Hat leaves, smoutli except on the margins, and as well as the sheaths mostly 

 glaucous, auriculate at the junction with the sheath ; ligule a short rigid fringe : 

 spike 5 to 15 inches long, dense or interi'upted, simjde or frc(|uently made up of 

 fascicled short few-llowered branches; sjiikelets 3 - G-flowered : glumes subulate- 

 setaceous, shorter than the spikelet : floret mostly membmnous ; lower palet 5-nerved 

 above, nmcronatc-pointed or somewhat 3-toothed ; u]»per ])alet ecpialling the lower, 

 2-toothed above. — Pel IPeidv. i. 2G5 ; Poland, in Trans. Calif. Agric. Soc. 18G4 - Go, 

 U3 ; "Watson, P^ot. King Exp. 391. 



Var. triticoides. Spike mostly simple ; spikelets smaller, 2 or 3 or sometimes 

 only 1 at each joint of the rhachis : florets of firmer texture and sometimes awn- 

 pointed or shortawned. — E. Virginicus, var. Siilnnudcvs, Hook. Fl. Por.-Am: ii. 255. 

 /;. triticoides, Nutt. in Herb. Phil. Acad. ; Puckl. in Proc. I'hil. Acad. 18G2, 99. 



Fort Tejon (Xnnlus) ; San Juan {Brcicer) ; Monterey and San Fiaucisco (Bulandcr) ; Oregon 

 Boundary {Lyall) ; and frequent through Nevada to Colorado. The variety from Jlohave River 

 (Cooper) and Jlouo Lake (//?•('(«<;?•) northward to Oregon. This is i)erha]is the most strikingly 

 variable gra.ss ujion the coast, and would furnisli several s])ecies were the characters consUuit. 

 At one extreme its stems, acconling to Mr. Bolander, are 12 feet high, and its roots do good .ser- 

 vice in retaining the soil of the banks of streams. In these luxuriant forms the culm is as large 

 as the little finger, and the leaves, an inch or more broad, are over 2 feet long. The spike is 

 sometimes an inch and a half tliick, dense and continuous, with erect appressed branches 2 inches 

 long, or it is much lobed or sometimes interrupted, witli the branches in separate clusters, lu 

 most of these large forms the liorets are pale straw-color and membranaceous, tlioiigli in some 

 they are greenish and coriaceous, in which respect they approach the variety triticoides; indeed 

 no stiict line can be drawn to separate them, and the variety is pioposed for those forms that are 

 liable to be taken for some luige Triticum. When it violates the character of tlie genus so far 

 as to have but one spikelet at a joint, there is nothing to distinguish the specimens from Triticum, 

 though none have been noticed in which there wen; not somewhere ujion tlic spike two spikelets 

 to the joint. These triticoid forms sometimes branch, and Nuttall collected on Wapatoo Island a 

 subpaiiiculate form, with branches naked below. 



* * Glumes acuminate-j)ointed or atoned : lower imlet with an awn longer than 



itself. 

 3. E. Sibiricus, Linn. Culms 2 to 3 feet high : leaves mostly ample, often G 

 lines broad, and with the sheaths glabrous throughcmt or scabrous on the upper 

 surface: spike virgute, 2 to 8 inches long, often somewhat nodding above; spikelets 



