58 GRAMINEAE. 



lowesl flower always perfect. Rachilla usually prolonged beyond the insertion 

 of the terminal flower, and (except in Spartina) jointed above the bracts so 

 that these persist after the flowers have fallen. Bractlet usually keeled, entire 

 and iinawned, or toothed and with 1 or 3 terminal straight awns. The inflor- 

 escence closely resembles thai of Paspalum, but the spikelets resemble those 

 of Festuceae. 



Spikes digitate; prostrate, running grass, rooting at the node-. 23. Cynodon. 



Spikes scattered along the main axis of the panicle; erecl plants. 



Bracts very unequal, long, narrow, acuminate; tidal creeks and marshes. .24. Spartina. 



Bracts equal, short, broad and boat-shaped, abruptly acute; sloughs and hanks of rivers 

 and streams 25. BECKMANNIA. 



23. CYNODON Kich. Dog's-tooth-grass. 



Perennial. Leaf-blades narrow, usually flat, often short. Panicle branches 

 2 to 6, digitate at the apex of the peduncle, erect or radially spreading. 

 Spikelets alternate, sessile (in ours) on one side of the rachis, 1 -flowered. 

 Bracts 2, persistent, often narrow, keeled; rachilla jointed above the bracts 

 and often prolonged beyond the base of the bractlet as a bristle. Bractlet 

 boat-shaped, distinctly keeled; palea often shorter and narrower, hyaline, 

 2-nerved. Stamens 3. Achene glabrous, not channeled. (Greek kuon, a dog, 

 odous, a tooth.) 



1. C. dactylon (L.) Pers. Bermuda-grass. Stems prostrate, creeping, 

 often several feet in length, clothed with undeveloped sheaths, producing roots 

 and tufts of leaves at the nodes and often one or more prostrate,- barren 

 branches; flowering stems 4 to 24 in. high, leafy; sheaths much crowded, 

 loose, strongly striate; ligule short, ciliate with long hairs; blades about 

 1 in. long and a line wide, stiff and sometimes involute, glaucous; panicle- 

 branches 3 to 6, 1 or 2 in. long, concavo-convex; spikelets about 1 line long, 

 appressed, closely imbricate; bracts shorter than the bractlet, ovate-lanceolate, 

 nearly equal, usually spreading, rough on the keel or not; bractlet smooth, 

 keel and margins ciliate; palea narrow. — (Capriola dactylon Ktze.) 



Tropical species naturalized in California and frequently occurring as a 

 roadside weed on the outskirts of towns, especially in the warm interior 

 valleys; in the Coast Ranges at San Eafael, Pacheco, Berkeley and Alameda. 

 Apr. -Oct. 



24. SPARTINA Schreb. Cord-grass. 

 Mostly maritime perennials. Steins simple, erect, reed-like but short. 

 Leaf-blades Long, tough. Panicle narrow, erect, dense, composed of several 

 erect, approximate spikes; spikelets large, compressed, more or less imbricate, 

 in rows on two sides of the triangular panicle-branches, 1-flowered. Bracts 

 unequal, keeled, acute, or bristle-pointed, about as long as the whole spikelet; 

 rachilla sometimes prolonged beyond the insertion of the flower. Bractlet sub- 

 hyaline, faintly 2-nerved; palea equaling it or longer. Scales short, obtuse. 



Stamens .'*>. Sly lo branches long, slender. (Greek spartine. a rope or cord 



made of spartos, Spartium junceum and Stipa tenacissima.) 



1. S. foliosa Trin. (30RD-GRASS. Kootstoek creeping, scaly; steins very 

 stout, 1 ' -_. In I ft. high; leaf-blades long, flat, smooth, tapering from about 3 

 lines wide near the middle to long, slender points; panicle (> to !* in. long; 

 branches 2 to 3 in. long; spikelets '•_> in. long; bracts varying from glabrous 



to Btrongly filiate on the keels. — (S. stricta var. glabra of 1st. ed.) 

 Common along the borders of salt-marshes around San Francisco and San 



Pablo bays, Usually, if I101 always, within reach of tidal water. Aug. -Dec. 



