GEASS FAMILY. 81 



Var. csespitosus Davy, var. nov. Tufted Wild-rye. Densely 

 tufted perennial; rootstock not stoloniferous; stems slender, erect, 

 densely clothed below with dead sheaths, 8 to 14 in. high; branches 

 very numerous from the base, the longest about 6 in. long; all the 

 sheaths glabrous throughout, the lowest minutely punctate, prominently 

 striate; ligule reduced to a narrow truncate ring; blades short, flat, 

 or becoming somewhat involute when dry, 1 line wide at the base, 

 glabrous except on the scabrid margins; uppermost cauline 1 to IJ in. 

 long, lowest cauline 4J in. long; peduncle glabrous, spike well 

 exserted, 2 to 2 J in. long, narrow; spikelets in pairs, sometimes one of 

 them rudimentary, 2-flowered; bracts acute, 3J lines long, ^ line wide, 

 glabrous; bractlet 3J lines long, terminating in an erect, minutely 

 scabrid awn 2J to 4 lines long; palea about equaling it in length; 

 achene 2J lines long. 



Type locality: Berkeley Hills, Davy. 



9. E. SItanion R. & S. Stems 1 to 2 ft. high; sheaths smooth; 

 spikes 4 to 7 in. long including the long awns, jointed at the nodes of 

 the rachis and readily breaking up at maturity; spikelets mostly in 

 pairs; bracts mostly 2-parted to the base, rarely entire, the divisions 

 again unequally 2-cleft, passing insensibly into awns 1 to 3 in. long. 

 — (Si tan ion elymoides Raf . ) 



A very variable grass, often resembling and sometimes mistaken 

 for Hordeum jubatum, but readily distinguishable by its divided 

 bracts. 



45. ASPERELLA Humb. Bottle-brush-qrass. 

 Leaf-blades broad, flat. Spike racemose, the spikelets resembling 

 short, fascicled branchlets owing to the exposure of the base of the 

 rachilla by the suppression of the bracts; spike at first cylindrical, in 

 - aestivation loose. Spikelets 1 to 5 at each node of the more or less 

 flattened and notched rachis, 1 to 4-flowered. Bracts reduced to 

 scars, or small, deciduous spines. Eachilla jointed below each 

 bractlet, terminating in a perfect or staminate flower. Bractlet 

 coriaceous, rounded on' the back, 5-nerved above, terminating in a 

 long, stout awn. Palea 2-keeled. Scales 2, large, distinct, shortly 

 and unequally toothed above, acute, ciliate. Stamens 8; anthers 

 large. Ovary hairy, especially above; stigmas 2 lines long, sessile or 

 nearly so, remote, feathery. Achene hairy at the apex. (Diminutive 

 of Latin asper, rough, prickly, referring to the rough, long-awned 

 spike of some species.) 



1. A. Californica (Boland.) Beal. California Bottlb-brtjsh. 

 Eootstock perennial, stout, creeping; stems stout, leafy, sub-solitary, 

 erect from a decumbent base, 3 J to 6 ft. high; sheaths split to the 

 base, loose, scabrous, those below usually clothed with short, stifi', 

 spreading or reflexed hairs; ligule about 1 line long, obtuse, erose, 

 brown; blade 4 to 14 in. long, J to 1 in. wide, flat, antrorsely 

 scabrous, especially beneath, shining with a satiny luster; spike 5 to 

 10 in. long, dense and drooping above, interrupted below, purplish; 

 rachis with scabrous margins; spikelets j to J in. long, 1 to3-flowered; 



