GRASS FAMILY. 33 



sometimes interrupted below. Spikelets as in Panicum, but always 

 awnless, the short peduncles produced beyond them into one to several 

 awn-like bristles which are at one side of the spikelet, not forming a 

 complete involucre. (Greek chaite, bristle, chloe, grass, referring to 

 the tuft of bristles at the base of the spikelet. A genus easily recog- 

 nized by the dense spike-like panicle, usually bristling with numer- 

 ous setse; these issue from the pedicels just below the spikelets in 

 the form of an involucre, and are not epidermal, like true hairs, but 

 appear to be abortive panicle-branchet;.) 



1. C. glauca (L.) Scribn. Bristly Poxta.il. Stems erect, 

 branching below, 1 to 2 ft. high, leafy; mouth of the sheath clothed 

 with long, silky hairs; blades 4 to 12 in. long, 3 to 5 lines broad, 

 scabrid or scabrous, sometimes sparsely ciliate; panicles IJ to 2J or 4 

 in. long, usually on a long, slender, naked peduncle, though, some- 

 times, at first partially enclosed by the uppermost sheath; bristles 

 pale green or tawny yellow; spikelets oval, about 1 line long and a 

 little less broad, obtuse or sub-acute, pale green. — (Setaria glauca 

 Beauv.) 



Introduced weed, perhaps not yet occurring within our limits. In 

 the San Joaquin Valley at Fresno, Bioli'tfi. June-Oct. 



Tribe 3. PhaharideaB. Caxary-grass Tribe. 

 Spikelets arranged in panicles, all alike, with 1 perfect flower, 

 which is tei-minal, and 1 or 2 empty bractlets or staminate flowers 

 below it; empty bractlets occasionally very small or rudimentary. 

 Bractlet and palea of the perfect flower alike, usually becoming 

 indurated, laterally compressed, awnless, nerveless or with only 1 

 nerve. 



Perfect flower subtended by 1 or 2 empty bractlets which are often mimite or 

 rudimentary. 

 Empty bractlets minute, entire, awnless or with minute bristles at the apex. 



5. Phalabis. 

 Empty bractlets equaling or exceeding the flower-enclosing bractlet, bifid 



and awned on the back 6. Akthoxanthum. 



Perfect flower subtended by 1 or 2 staminate flowers . . .7. Hieeocbloe. 



5. PHALARIS L. G ax art-grass. 

 Blades flat. Inflorescence a dense, spikelike, rarely interrupted, 

 thyrse. Spikelets crowded, 1-flowered. Bracts about equal in 

 length, boat-shaped, complicate, strongly compressed laterally, 

 usually winged-keeled, 3-nerved. Bractlet and palea of perfect 

 flower subtended by 2, or only 1, small or rudimentary, more or less 

 hairy, empty bractlets. Flower-enclosing bractlet and palea alike, 

 shorter than the bracts, complicate, becoming indurated in fruit; 

 palea a little the smaller. Scales 2 and minute, or obsolete. Stamens 

 3. Ovary smooth. (Greek phalaros, having a patch of white, from 

 the broad, light-colored margins and patches between the nerves of 

 the ■ bracts in some species. Supposed to be the' Phalaris of 

 Dioscorides). - ^^ 



SpiKelels all perfect ; bracts decidedly winged-keeled on the back ; annuals. 

 Rudimentary bractlets 2; thyrse ovoid. 



