74 GBAMINE^. 



An introduced weed, native of the Mediterranean Region: between 

 Bolinas and Olema, 1886, Greene; South San Francisco, 1891, 

 Brandegee; Martinez; Point Reyes, JJaui/; reported also from Tiburon, 

 Beh7-. June-July. 



41. SCRIBNERIA Haokel. 



A low, slender, erect, tufted annual. Inflorescence a strict, slender, 

 jointed spike, breaking up at maturity. Spikelets 1-flowered, sessile 

 and half embedded in the notches of the rachis, solitary or rarely in 

 pairs, alternate, long and slender. Bracts much exceeding the bract- 

 let, persistent, unequal, linear-lanceolate, acute, awnless, eccentrically 

 keeled, very rigid; upper 3 to 5-nerved, lower 2 to 3-nerved and 

 ribbed. Raohilla very short, jointed above the bracts, with a ring of 

 hairs surrounding, the base of the bractlet, prolonged as a minute 

 hairy point. Bractlet and psilea sub-equal, keeled; bractlet charta- 

 ceous, 1-nerved, toothed at apex and bearing a stout awn about its 

 own length from between the teeth; palea hyaline, 1-nerved, acumi- 

 nate and deeply 2-fld. Scales obsolete. Stamen 1. Ovary glabrous, 

 narrowl}' obovate; stigma short, sessile, feathery. Aehene linear- 

 tapering, obtuse, free, slightly compressed laterally, not grooved; 

 embryo pi'ominent. (In honor of F. Lamson-Scribner, Agrostologist 

 to the United States Department of Agriculture.) 



1. S. Bolanderi (Thurb.) Hackel. Scribnekia. Stems 2 to 6 

 in. high, mostly simple, leafy; sheaths striate; ligule prominent, 

 1 to 2 lines long, acute; blades f to |-in. long, narrow, involute, 

 acute; spike f to 2 or 4J in. long, erect, slightly flexuous or curved, 

 purplish; spikelets about 3 lines long, usually exserted, scabrid. — 

 (Lepturus Bolanderi Thurb.) 



Found in dry gravelly soils on hillsides and roadsides from Lake 

 and Mendocino Cos. northward to Oregon, and in the Sierra Nevada: 

 Russian River Valley, Long Valley and Round Valley, Mendocino 

 Co., 1866, Bolanrler; Yreka; Lakeport; Mariposa Co. Apr. -May. 

 Not recorded from within our limits, but to be looked for in Sonoma 

 Co., in the upper Russian River Valley. 



42. LOLIUM L. Ray-grass. 

 Leaf-blades flat. Spike simple, solitary; rachis not jointed at the 

 nodes. Spikelets in notches excavated alternately on opposite sides 

 of the rachis, with the backs of one row of bractlets turned towards it, 

 3 to several-flowered, flattened laterally. Bracts 2 in the terminal 

 spikelet, only 1 (the outermost) or 1 and a rudiment in the lateral 

 spikelets. Rachilla jointed. Bractlet flrm, 5-nerved. Palea ciliate. 

 Stamens 3. Scales 2, mostly as long as the ovary. Ovary smooth or 

 slightly downy at top; styles very short; stigmas feathery. (Lolium, 

 the name used by ancient Latin writers to designate Darnel, Lolium 

 temulentum, and perhaps other grain-field weeds. At once distin- 

 guished from all other genera of the tribe Hordeaj by the solitai-y, 

 flat spikelets, arranged distichously with one edge towards the rachis.) 



Bract shorter than the mucli flattened spikelet 1. L. perenne. 



Bract equaling or exceeding the turgid spikelet 2. L. temidenium. 



