68 BULLETIN 772, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The only species in the United States is Cynosurus cristatus L. (fig. 

 29), known as crested dog's-tail grass. This is occasionally sown in 

 mixtures for meadows, but has nothing especially to recommend it- 

 It is a tufted perennial 1 to 2 feet tall, the panicles 2 to 4 inches long. 



23. ACHYRODES Boehmer. 

 (Lamarckia Moench.) 



Spikelets of two kinds, in fascicles, the terminal one of each fas- 

 cicle fertile, the others sterile; fertile spikelet, with 1 perfect 

 floret, the rachilla produced beyond the floret, bearing a small awned 

 empty lemma or reduced to an awn; glumes narrow, acuminate or 

 short-awned, 1-nerved; lemma broader, raised on a slender stipe, 

 scarcely nerved, bearing just below the apex a delicate straight awn ; 

 sterile spikelets linear, 1 to 3 in each fascicle, consisting of 2 

 glumes similar to those of the fertile spikelet, and numerous distich- 

 ously imbricate, obtuse, awnless, empty lemmas. 



A low, erect annual, with flat blades and oblong, one-sided, compact 

 panicles, the crowded fascicles drooping, the fertile being hidden, ex- 

 cept the awns, by the numerous sterile ones. Species one, a native of 

 southern Europe, naturalized in southern California. 



Type species: Cynosurus aureus L. 



Achyrodes Boehmer, in Ludw. Def. Gen. PI. 420. 3760. The genus is based on 

 a phrase name of Tournefort, which Linnreus cites under Cynosurus aureus L. 



Lamarckia Moench, Meth. PI. 201. 1794. A single species is described, L. 

 aurea (Cynosurus aureus L.). 



Chrysurus Pers., Syn. PI. 1: 80. 1805. A single species, C. cynosuroidcs, 

 based on Cynosurus aureus L., is included. 



The single species, AcJiyrodes aureum (L.) Kuntze (fig. 30), is 

 abundantly naturalized in southern California. It is called golden- 

 top because of its beautiful golden yellow panicles. 



24. MELICA L. 



Spikelets 2 to several flowered, the rachilla disarticulating above 

 the glumes and between the florets, prolonged beyond the perfect 

 florets and bearing at the apex two or three gradually smaller empty 

 lemmas, convolute together or the upper inclosed in the lower; 

 glumes somewhat unequal, thin, often papery, scarious-margined, 

 obtuse or acute, sometimes nearly as long as the lower floret, 3 to 5 

 nerved, the nerves usually prominent ; lemmas convex, several-nerved, 

 membranaceous or rather firm, scarious-margined, sometimes con- 

 spicuously so, awnless or sometimes awned from between the teeth of 

 the bifid apex. 



Bather tall perennials, with the base of the culm often swollen 

 into a corm, with closed sheaths, usually flat blades, narrow or some- 

 times open, usually simple panicles of relatively large spikelets. 

 Species about 60, in the cooler parts of both hemispheres; 18 in the 

 United States, mostly woodland grasses. 



