GRASS FAMILY. 51 



about % from the base, 1% lines long, shortly exceeding the bractlet; palea 

 about 2 lines long. 



Marin Co. northward: plentiful along the trail from Mill Valley Cascades 

 to the reservoir, above the Redwoods. Aug-Sept. 



6. C. rubescens Buckl. Differing from C. fasciculata in its usually elon- 

 gated, not rigid leaves which rarely form a dense tuft, and by its narrow, 

 spiciform, usually red-purple panicle. 



Mt. Tamalpais ace. to Kearney. 



15. AMMOPHILA Host. Marram-grass. 



Tall perennial, with long, rigid leaves. Panicle large, contracted. Spikelets 

 large, 1 -flowered, much compressed laterally. Bracts persistent, scarcely 

 exceeding the bractlets, sub-equal, rigid, thick, compressed-keeled, lanceolate, 

 sub-acute, awnless; lower 1, upper 3-nerved. Rachilla terminating in a point 

 beyond the insertion of the bractlet. Bractlet and palea similar in texture 

 and about as long as the bracts; bractlet 5-nerved, minutely awned, with an 

 oblique callus and a short tuft of silky hairs at base; awn minute, sub-terminal; 

 palea 2-keeled, sulcate between the keels, 2-toothed. Scales very acuminate. 

 Stamens 3. Ovary glabrous; styles short, distinct. (Greek ammos, sand, and 

 philia, affection, from its preference for sand-dunes.) 



1. A. arenaria (L.) Link. Beach-grass. Rootstock widely creeping; stems 

 2 to 4 ft. high; sheaths long; ligule very long, 2-fid, torn; blades convolute and 

 polished without, scabrid and glaucous within; panicle spike-like, sub-clindric- 

 fusiform, 3 to 6 in. long, straight, broadest and sometimes lobed at the base, 

 white or yellowish; pedicels scabrous; spikelets erect, 5 to 6 lines long; bracts 

 % to 14 in. long; keel scabrid; hairs and prolongation of the rachilla less than 

 !._. as long as the spikelet; anthers y± in. long, linear, yellow. — (A. arundinacea 

 Host.) 



Introduced from Europe into California about 1876, by Mr. Louis McLane, 

 at the instigation of Prof. Geo. Davidson, for binding the drifting coast-sands 

 of Golden Gate Park. Xow thoroughly established at Golden Gate Park, Pt. 

 Lobos and South Beach, as well as at Pt. Reyes and Pt. Arena. July. 



Tribe 5. Aveneae. Oats Tribe. 



Inflorescence in lax, rarely contracted panicles, or in Danthonia sometimes 

 reduced to a raceme of 1 to 10 terminal spikelets. Spikelets all alike, usually 

 with 2 or more perfect flowers (1 perfect and 1 staminate in Holcus and 

 Arrhenatherum ; rarely 1-flowered by abortion in Deschampsia and Trisetum), 

 the imperfect flowers when present, uppermost (except in Arrhenatherum). 

 Bracts large in proportion to the whole spikelet, usually exceeding the uppermost 

 bractlet. Rachilla, except in Holcus, jointed above the bracts so that these per- 

 sist after the flower has fallen, prolonged beyond the insertion of the upper- 

 most flower except in Aira. Bractlet usually awned on the back, rarely from 

 between the teeth of the 2-fid apex; awns usually geniculate and twisted. 



A. Bracts readily deciduous with the flou-cr. 

 Spikelet strictly 2-flowered; lower flower perfect, its bractlet awnless; upper flower 



staminate for rarely perfect), its bractlet with a short awn 16. HOLCUS. 



B. Bracts persistent after the flower has fallen. 

 Rachilla not prolonged beyond the insertion of the upper flower; spikelets strictly 2- 

 flowered. 



Bractlets hyaline, 2-toothed, dorsally awned; flowers closely superposed 17. Aika. 



Rachilla prolonged beyond the insertion of the upper flower; spikelets (in ours) 2 

 (rarely only 1 in Deschampsia and Trisetum) to many-flowered. 



