272 GRAMINE.E. Agrostis. 



proper, with elongated acute ligiile, and the panicle contracted after flowering ; known as Fiorin 

 Grass, White Bent, Creeping Ht-nt, Marsh Bent, or White Top ; — var. vulgaris, with the ligule 

 short and tiuncate, and the panicle alter flowering more or less spreading ; usually called Eed 

 Top, or Herd's-Grass (in some of the Eastern States), also Fine Bent or Fine Top. This grass in 

 its different forms makes up a considerable part of the permanent pastures of the older States, 

 and Ked Top is sometimes sown for hay ; on account of its fine close turf it is one of the best lawn 

 grasses, especially in light sandy soils. 



3. A. verticillata, Vill. Culms 1 or 2 feet high, decumbent and taking root 

 below, several of tlie lower nodes geniculate : leaves short, flat, 1 to 3 lines wide, 

 roughened, especially on the upper surface and margins ; ligule 1 or 2 lines long, 

 truncate ; sheaths loose, shorter than the internodes : panicle 2 to 6 inches long or 

 more, dense, lobed and interrupted ; rays crowded, branched and flower-bearing 

 from the base : spikelets scarcely a line long, often ])uri)lish : glumes about equal, 

 acute, 1-nerved and roughened with miinite pubescence, often open : floret about 

 half the length of the glumes ; lower palet .5-nerved and minutely 5-toothed at its 

 obtuse apex, the nerves often indistinct below ; upper palet nearly as long as the 

 lower. — Trin. Spec. Gram, i, t. 36, and Agrost.ii. 112. Vil/a stoloni/era, Hook. & 

 Arn. Bot. Beechey, 161, probably. 



San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and other localities along the coast ; common in Texas, New 

 Mexico and Northern Mexico, and found also in Southern Europe and Asia. A widely distributed 

 species, sometimes with a regularly lobed panicle nearly a foot long, but more frequently with a 

 shorter and much interrupted one, the lower part of the axis having naked spaces of an inch. 

 The panicle is sometimes purplish. Found in moist places, especially near water-courses, and of 

 no agricultural value. 



•H- ++ Panicle short, dense and spike-like. 



4. A. mucronata, Presl. Culms in tufts from an annual fibrous and pubescent 

 root, 3 to 9 inches high : leaves mostly flat, slightly rigid, erect, the uppermost 

 about an inch long, the lower longer, about a line wide and slightly rougliened on 

 the margins ; ligule obtuse or truncate, decurrent ; sheaths longer than the internodes, 

 very loose, crowded at the base, smooth : panicle 1 to 1|^ inches long and 2 to 3 

 lines in diameter, at length exserted from the upper sheath ; rays in crowded fasci- 

 cles, appressed, and like the common axis scabrous : spikelets rather exceeding a 

 line in length, on pedicels as long or shorter, very [)ale, occasionally purplish : 

 glumes very acute and mucronate, the lower barely longer, hispid on the back and 

 very minutely scabrous throughout : floret nearly equalling the glumes, the minute 

 callus smooth ; lower palet minutely pubescent, obtuse Avith four minute teeth, the 

 midnerve excurrent just below the apex as a short rather stout rough awn, barely 

 exserted beyond tlie points of the glumes ; upper palet nearly half the length of the 

 lower, extremely delicate: stamens 3, linear-oblong. — Eel. Htenk. i. 238; Trin. 

 Agrost. ii. 106. 



Sea-coast, Mendocino County, Bolancler. This agi-ees very well with Presl's description of a 

 grass in Hsenke's collection, the locality for which is not given. Apparently an annual, wliiih 

 makes its growth of foliage in autumn, as the stems are thickly clothed below with withered 

 sheaths. The specimens have the half-blanched appearance often presented by sea-side ])lants. 

 The scabrous pubescence of the glumes and lower palet is so minute that it can only be seen 

 with a strong glass. No one except Mr. Bolander appears to have met with this species, and he 

 collected at the same time what is apparently a much weather-worn awnless form of it, but it is 

 too imperfect for satisfactory determination. 



-1- -^ Upper pjolet present, scarcely longer than the ovary. 



5. A, Scouleri, Trin. Culm strict, a foot high or more, from a perennial root, 

 somewhat rigid : leaves 3 or 4 inches long, the iq^permost 1 to H inches, flat or 

 involute, \\ lines wide, tapering to a long point, minutely roiighened above; ligule 

 about a line long, obtuse, often lacerate ; sheaths longer than the internodes, smooth : 

 panicle long-exserted, lanceolate, open and few-flowered, the lower rays over an inch 

 long and equalling the intervening spaces, clustered, the longer few-flowered above 

 the middle : spikelets barely exceeding a line, very pale or tinged with purple : 



