GRASS FAMILY. 57 



dower staminate, upper pistillate or perfect. Bracts persistent, scarious (in 

 ours), very unequal, shortly acuminate, keeled. Braetlets rigid, 5 to 7-uerved, 

 2-toothed, that of the lower flower with a long, basal, bent and twisted awn, 

 that of the upper with a short, dorsal awn; palea 2-nerved. Scales lanceolate, 

 laterally toothed. Stamens 3. (Greek arrhen, masculine, ather, awn; only the 

 male flower is conspicuously awned.) 



1. A. elatius (L.) Beauv. Tall Oat-grass. Eootstock perennial, widely 

 creeping; stems 2 to 4 ft. high, erect, slender, smooth, leafy, often densely 

 tufted; lowest internode sometimes developed into a conn; leaves bright 

 green; sheaths smooth; ligule broad, obtuse, about 1 line long; blades soft, 

 minutely scabrid, 2y 2 to 3% lines wide; panicle narrow, pale green, shining, 

 6 to 8 in. long, drooping; branches short, erect, scabrid, spreading in flower, 

 densely whorled, bearing few spikelets; spikelets 3 to 4 lines long; upper 

 bract enclosing the 2 flowers acute; lower much smaller; bractlet hairy below, 

 about half as long as the twisted, bent awn. — (A. avenaceum Beauv.; Avena 

 elatior L.) 



Sparingly naturalized in California: reported from the vicinity of San 

 Francisco (Dr. Behr) ; Berkeley Hills (J. B. Davy). June-Sept. 



22. DANTHONIA DC. 



Inflorescence in ours consisting of a paniculate raceme or simple panicle or 

 the spikelets solitary and terminal. Spikelets about 7-flowered. Bracts per- 

 sistent, nearly equal, keeled, awnless, equaling the whole spikelet, 3 to 9 (rarely 

 only 1) -nerved. Eachilla jointed and pilose between the flowers, prolonged 

 beyond the insertion of the uppermost bractlet. Flowers all perfect, or the 

 uppermost staminate. Bractlet 7 to 13-nerved, terminating in 2 sharp, usually 

 rigidly awn-pointed teeth, between which is a geniculate, spreading awn, flat- 

 tened at the base and spirally twisted, formed from the three middle nerves; 

 palea hyaline, broadly 2-nerved, equaling or exceeding the entire portion of 

 the bractlet, obtuse or 2-toothed. Stamens 3. Scales 2, entire. Ovary smooth, 

 stipitate. (Etienne Danthoine, a French botanist of the 18th century.) 



1. D. calif ornica Boland. Daxthonia. Tufted perennial; stems I 1 /* to 

 3 ft. high, slender, usually sub-erect ; sheaths bearded at the throat, densely 

 or sparsely villous, or smooth, the hairs arising from minute, white papillae; 

 ligule obscure; blades mostly convolute-setaceous; spikelets 1 to 5 rarely 10, 

 terminal, 7% to 12 lines long, usually purplish; pedicels long, slender, 

 minutely and densely hirsute, spreading; bracts enclosing the rest of the 

 spikelet, acuminate, 8 to 10 lines long ; flowers about 7 ; bractlet broad, coria- 

 ceous below, about 4 lines long excluding the awn, with tufts of white hairs 

 on the callus and on the margins from about the middle downwards; its 

 teeth about 2 lines long; awn spreading, barely exserted, brownish below, 

 with short, spreading hairs on the nerves; palea ciliate, notched above; achene 

 about 2 lines long. 



Coast Eanges from San Francisco Bay northward and southward, the 

 prevalent grass on dry hills, especially along the coast: Berkeley; San Fran- 

 cisco; Crystal Springs Lake; Olema; Pt. Eeyes. 



Tribe 6. Chlorideae. Finger-grass Tribe. 



Inflorescence a simple panicle of spikes which are usually digitate at the 

 end of, or scattered along, its main axis, or, rarely, solitary and terminal. 

 Baehis not jointed or notched as in Hordeae. Spikelets sessile in 2 rows, which 

 form unilateral spikes; in ours all perfect and 1 or rarely 2-flowered; 



