GRASS FAMILY. 45 



Naturalized forage-grass: Glen Ellen; Eussian Kiver near Guerneville. June- 

 Aug. 



2. P. alpinum L. Mountain Timothy. Closely related to P. pratense 

 but stems rarely more than a foot high, usually stouter and more leafy, slightly 

 decumbent at base; internodes not corm-like; uppermost sheaths inflated; 

 ligule about 1 line long, truncate; leaf blades short, acute, 1% to 5 lines wide; 

 panicle ovoid or oblong, y 2 to \y 2 in. long, feathery, usually darker in color; 

 spikelets 2 to 2!/o lines long including the awns; margins of bracts less- abruptly 

 truncate; anthers about % line long. 



Sierra Nevada and the higher Coast Ranges; also on dry sandy bluffs along 

 the coast from Crescent City to San Francisco. Apr.-Aug. 



10. ALOPECURUS L. Fox-tail. 

 Aspect much that of Phleum. Upper sheaths usually inflated; leaf blades 

 flat. Inflorescence a dense, cylindrical or ovoid, terminal thyrse or false spike, 

 which is soft to the touch and jointed on the apex of the enlarged peduncle. 

 Spikelets 1-flowered, crowded, 3 lines or less long, much compressed laterally. 

 Bracts somewhat united at the base, conduplicate, compressed-keeled, decidu- 

 ous with the flower; keel ciliate-f ringed or slightly winged. Rachilla not jointed 

 above the bracts. Flower decidedly proterogynous. Bractlet and palea hyaline, 

 equaling or barely shorter than the bracts; bractlet broad, obtuse, 1 to 3 or 

 5 -nerved, with a short, very slender, bent awn on the back, at, or below, the 

 middle ; margins connate at the base, enclosing the flower ; palea usually obso- 

 lete, when present narrow, acute, keeled, partly included by the bractlet. Scales 

 obsolete. Stamens 3. Ovary smooth; stigmas long, shortly hairy with simple 

 hairs. (Greek alopex, a fox, oura, a tail, from the fancied resemblance of 

 the thyrse to a fox's tail. Closely resembling and nearly allied to Phleum. The 

 name "Fox-Tail" has frequently been applied, in California, to the Barley- 

 grasses, species of the genus Hordeum.) 



Spikelets 2y 2 to 3 lines long; thyrse 2]/ 2 to 3J4 in. long 1. A. pratensis. 



Spikelets l/ 2 to 2 lines long; thyrse 1 to 2 in. long, 2 l / 2 to A l / 2 lines wide 



2. A. calif ornicus. 

 Spikelets 1 to \ l / 2 lines long; thryse ^4 to 1 in. long, \ l / 2 to 2 l / 2 lines wide 



3. A. geniculatus. 



1. A. pratensis L. Meadow Fox-tail. Rootstock perennial, stoloniferous : 

 stems erect or the lowest node geniculate, smooth; sheaths smooth, upper much 

 inflated; ligule y 2 to \y 2 lines long, entire, truncate, brown, scabrid; blades 

 iy 2 to 3 lines wide; panicle slender, dense, cylindrical, obtuse, 2% to 3*4 in. 

 long, soft, pale green or purplish; branches very short, with 3 to 6 spikelets; 

 spikelets 2% to 3 lines long, 1 line wide, narrowly oval, much compressed, acute; 

 bracts acute, villously ciliate on the keel; margins connate for about % to % 

 their length; bractlet awned from near the base; margins connate for % to % 

 their length ; awn about 4 lines long, exserted y 2 its length. 



Naturalized from Europe near settlements but apparently nowhere plentiful. 

 Waverly (J. A. Sanford). Apr.-July. 



2. A. californicus Yasey. California Fox-tail. Perennial, allied to 

 A. pratensis, but the thyrse only 1 to 2 in. long; spikelets 1% to 2 lines long; 

 bracts obtuse, only slightly united at the base, often ciliate for only % their 

 length; awn exserted 1% to 2 lines, mostly strongly geniculate; anthers 

 bright yellow. 



Apparently peculiar to California and Oregon. Wet places: Santa Cruz Co.; 

 Berkeley. .May. 



