306 



GlvAMINE^E. Disticltlis. 



crowded sheaths ; leaves riyid, mostly involute. Pistillate spikelets much more rigid 

 than the stamiiiate. — Demazeria, Dumort. Brhopi/ram, Link. 



A small genus separated from Poa on account of its many nerved coriaceous palets. 



1. D. maritima, Uaf. Culms 6 to 18 inches high, sometimes branched below : 

 leaves about -i iuclies long, usually distichously spreading, long-acuminate : sjnke 

 oblong, 1 to 3 inches long; spikelets 4 to G lines long, 5 - 12-tlowered : florets 

 smootli, excepting the minutely ciliate keels of the upper palet. — Journ. Phys. 

 Ixxxix. 104 ; Benth. Fl. Austral, vii. 637. Uuiola spicata, Linn. Festuca dis- 

 tkhophylla, Michx. Brizopi/rum Americanum, Link, Hort. Berol. i. IGO. Brizo- 

 jjyrum horeale, Presl, llel. Haenk. i. 280. Poa Michauxii, Kunth, Enum. i. 325. 

 BrizojMjrnm spicatum, Hook. & Arn. Bot. Beechey, 403 ; Gray, Manual, G28. 



Var. Stricta. Leaves setaceously convolute : panicle loose ; spikelets few, erect, 

 often an inch long, 10-20-flowered. — Uniola stricta, Torr. in Ann. Lye. N. York, 

 i. 155, and Marcy's Eep. 301, t. 20. Uniola multijiora, Nutt. Fl. Ark. 148. Bri- 

 zopyrunt spicatum, var. st7-ictum, Gray. 



The typical form at San Francisco [Bolander), San Luis Obispo (Brciocr), and common on the 

 Atlantic coast, usually near salt water. The variety at the sink of the Mohave (Cooler), in Puerto 

 Canon (Brewer), and the prevalent grass in alkaline localities through the interior to the Locky 

 Mountains and southward into Mexico. Exceedingly variahle ; specimens from the coast are yel- 

 lowish throughout with short spikelets, while inland localities furnish forms with very long erect 

 spikelets and the plant usually green. Torrey's U. stricta was founded on an extreme form 

 with very lonf erect spikelets. Sometimes the culms bear clusters of arrested hardened sheaths, 

 ai>pparin" like' one-sided cones, probablv due to the wound of some insect. Briznpyrum Doug- 

 lasii, Hook. & Arn., which reseml)les this in little save in being dicecious, is referred to Poa. 



47. LOPHOCHL-55NA, Nees. 



Panicle a simple elongated virgate secund raceme. Spikelets long, narrow, many- 

 flowered, compressed. Rhachis breaking up at maturity, undulate, smooth, its joints 

 less than half the length of the florets. Glurues shorter than the lowest florets, 

 membranous, the lower 1-nerved, the npper and larger 3-nerved. Lower palet her- 

 baceous, becoming chartaceo-coriaceous, narrowed below to a rounded smooth callus, 

 scarious and 2-lobed or truncate at apex, prominently 7-nerved, the midnerve pro- 

 duced as a straight rigid awn. Upper palet nearly equal, the central portion similar 

 in texture to the lower, the margin and apex scarious, strongly 2-nerved and 2-keeled, 

 folded between the nerves, and the margins strongly infolded, the nerves with a 

 simply or lacerately toothed wing-like appendage. Stamens 3, violaceous (at least 

 in the first species). Scales short, fleshy, connate. Ovary smooth, ovoid, stipitate : 

 styles very long, divergent, plumose near the apex. Grain somewhat triangularly 

 compressed, strongly furrowed : pericarp loose, 2-horned with the bases of the stig- 

 mas.— Tayl. Ann. Nat. Hist. i. 283. 



Soft and smooth annuals, of which two species are known, with somewhat the appearance of 

 a Bromus. The conspicuously toothed marginal wings upon the upper palet distinguish this 

 from all our other genera. 



1. L. Californica, Xees, 1. c. Culms tufted, about 2 feet high, constricted and 

 dark colored at the nodes, clothed below by the overlapping sheaths : lower leaves 

 4 to 6, the npper 1 or 2 inches long, obtuse, about 2 lines wide, liarely roughish ; 

 ligule 3 lines long, very thin, acute : panicle 6 to 9 inches long, of G to 12 suberect 

 or spreading spikelets about an inch long, on stout flattened pedicels a third as long : 

 glumes colorless and shining except the nerves, the npper irregularly notched at 

 apex : lower palet 3 lines long, the rough awn as long, very scabrous on and between 

 the nerves ; the three central nerves uniting above, the others evanescent ; upper 



