GRASS FAMILY. 77 



Spikes stout, cylindrical, usually dense. Spikelets 2 to B (sometimes 

 only 1 above) at each node of the more or less flattened and notched 

 rachis, placed sidewise to the raehis, usually sessile, 2 to 7 (rarely 

 only i)-ttowered. Bracts persistent, placed side by side in front of 

 each spikelet so that those at a node together resemble an involucre, 

 rarely divided into several awns (section Sitanion), firm, 1 to 5- 

 nerved, linear or narrowly lanceolate-subulate. Kachilla jointed 

 below the bractlets, terminating in a perfect or stamiuate flower or an 

 empty bractlet. Bractlets usually coriaceous, rounded on the back. 

 Palea 2-keeled. Scales large, usually ciliate. Stamens 3; anthers 

 large. Ovary hairy; stigmas sessile or nearly so, distant. Achene 

 oblong, hairy at the apex, grooved on the inside, adherent to the 

 bractlet and palea. (Greek elumos, a kind of grain.) 



Bri'Ctli^t cuspidate or awn-pointed, but not loog-anned. 

 Spikeleis % to I in. long; lowest bractlet 7 to 10 lines lon^; lUule about \^ line 



long; i?l. ut grass of mariiime dunes and ^andy beaches. 1. £. arenarius. 

 Spibea-ts K to 5^ in. Ifiig: lowest bractlet 5 to 6 lines long. 

 Ligule about 1 line long; spike stout, usually dense, contracted; spikelets 



many; stuut gras.s oi moist places among the hilN. . ,2.E, condensatus. 

 Ligule about 3^ li e long; spike slender; spikelets few; plant usually 

 glaucous \mh a bluish bloom; slender gruss of bottom lauds in tbe 



warmer valleys 3. E. triticoides. 



Bractlet with an awii mostly equaling or longer than itself. 

 Bracts entile, narrowly lanceolate-subulate, mostly acuminate or awn- 

 pointed but not Inng-awned. 

 Rootstocli -toloniferous. 

 Awns erect; sheaths glabrous or retrorsely pubescent. 

 Ligule less than }^ line long, regularly truncate. 



Sheaths densely re ror-^ely pubescent 4. JS. pubescens. 



Sheath.'i smooth or seabrid 5. .E. glaucus. 



Liguleabiiut 1 linelong, rounded; bractlethispidulous.6. E. hispidviui. 

 Awns verv diver ent when dry, straight and erect when moistened; lower 



sheaths densely antrorscly pubescent .I.E. divergem. 



Rriotstock not stoloniferous; stems leafy and tufted. . . . S. E. angustifoUus. 

 Bracts divided into long, slender awns which surround the spikelets as with 

 an involucre. . . . • .9- E. Sitanion. 



1. E. arenarius L. Kancheria-gbass. Glaucous; rootstock 

 stout, widely creeping, stoloniferous; stems stout, erect, 3 to 6 ft. high; 

 sheaths smooth, channeled; ligule a narrow truncate ring; blades 13 

 to 18 in. long, 4 to 6 lines wide, flat or with more- or less convolute 

 margins below, attenuate, rigid, auricled at the base, scabrous above, 

 smooth below; spike 6 to 12 in. long, dense, erect; rachis broadly 

 winged, pubescent and ciliate; spikelets large, in pairs or threes, 

 imbricate, mostly appressed, f to 1 in. long, about 6-flowered; bracts 

 sub-equal, 7 to 12 lines long, rather shorter than the nearest bractlet, 

 lanceolate-acuminate, 8 to"5-nerved, scabrous, sparingly ciliate with 

 long hairs on the mid-nerve especially above; bractlet about 9 lines 

 long including the long point, IJ lines wide, 8 to 9-nerved, glabrous 

 or scabrid or sparingly pubescent; palea about G lines long, ciliate on 

 the keels; anthei-s 3 lines long 



Common on maritime sand dunes, sandy beaches, and coast blufts: 

 Cliflr House and South Beach, San Francisco; Alameda Marshes; Bay 

 Farm Island; West Berkeley; cliffs at mouth of Bear Valley; Pomt 

 Keyes. July-Aue. 



