GRASS FAMILY. 43 



Leafy; panicle narrow, 3 to (5 in. Long, lax and open; branches 1 or 2 at a joint, 

 bearing few, largo spikelets with spreading bracts; Bpikelets about 2 lines 

 long, 2 to 3 lines wide when open, brownish, brightly shining; anthers yellow, 

 about 1 line long. — (Savastana macrophylla Beal.) 



In light loose soil on moist shaded banks of coniferous forests in the Red- 

 wood belt, from Marin Co. northward. Mar. -May. Said to owe its fragrance 

 to the presence of cumarin ; it has been known to retain some of its odor 

 for fully thirty years after gathering. 



Tribe 4. Agrostideae. Bent-grass Tribe. 



Inflorescence paniculate or rarely racemose, often cylindrical, dense and spike- 

 like. Spikelets all fertile, strictly 1-flowered. Flower always perfect, either 

 terminal, or sometimes the rachilla prolonged beyond its insertion, as a bristle. 

 Rachilla jointed above the bracts (except in Alopecurus and Polypogon) so 

 that these persist after the flower falls. Bracts usually equaling or exceeding 

 the bractlet. Palea 2-nerved or nerveless, in some species of Agrostis and 

 Alopecurus minute or obsolete. 



Bractlet indurated at maturity (at least firmer in texture than the bracts) and very 

 closely enveloping the fruit; panicle (in ours) lax; awn persistent, twisted, 



stout 8. Stipa. 



Bractlet usually hyaline or membranous at maturity (at least not noticeably firmer in 

 texture than the bracts) ; panicle various, but usually contracted, dense and spikelike. 

 Pedicel jointed below the bracts, so that these fall away with the flower at maturity, 

 sometimes together with the whole or a part of the pedicel. 



Bracts awnless 10. Alopecurus. 



Bracts long-awned 11. Polypogon. 



Pedicel not jointed below the bracts; rachilla jointed above the bracts so that these 

 persist after the flower has fallen. 

 Spikelets 3 lines or less long. 



Rachilla naked or with a few very short hairs. 



Bracts strongly keeled, complicate, abruptly acute, ciliately fringed on the 



keels 9. Phleum. 



Bracts obscurely keeled above, saccate below, acuminate, % longer than the 



bractlet 13. Gastridium. 



Bracts neither prominently keeled nor saccate, acute or acuminate; very small. 



12. Agrostis. 

 Rachilla with a tuft of long hairs on the callus, about l /i the length of the 



bractlet 14. Calamagrostis. 



Spikelets 5 to 6 lines long; bractlet and palea chartaceous; a tall sand-dune grass. 



15. Ammophila. 



8. STIPA L. 



Eootstock tufted. Leaf-blades narrow, involute or convolute. Panicle lax, 

 mostly open or somewhat contracted. Spikelets 1-flowered. Bracts subequal, 

 keeled, often terminated by a long subulate point, persistent; rachilla jointed 

 above the bracts. Bractlet and palea dissimilar; bractlet firm, narrow, rolled 

 around the flower, with a terminal, undivided, bent, persistent awn, spirally 

 twisted below the bend; palea usually shorter, thinner, 2-nerved. Scales usually 

 3 and large. Stamens usually 3, rarely only 1 or 2 ; anthers often tipped with a 

 tuft of short hairs. Ovary stipitate, smooth; styles 2, short; stigmas plumose 

 with simple hairs. (Greek stipe, feathery, referring to the long, feathery awns of 

 some species. Ours usually met with on dry hillsides. One of the several 

 genera known as "Bunch-grasses.") 



Awn 2^4 to 4 in. long 1. s. setigera. 



Awn less than 2 in. long. 



Panicle open, branches spreading; anthers tipped with a tuft of short hairs 



. 2. S. eminens. 



.Panicle strict, narrow; branches short, erect; anthers naked 3. S. viridula. 



