GRASS FAMILY. 61 



the lowest flower, with long, silky hairs which surround the bractlets. Bract- 

 lets 3 to 6, very long-acuminate, 3-nerved, entire; the lowest empty or bearing 

 a staminate flower with 1 to 3 stamens, the upper bearing perfect flowers 

 with 3 stamens; palea very much shorter than its bractlet, hyaline, 2-ribbed. 

 Scales large, obtuse. Ovary glabrous. (A Greek name used by Dioscorides 

 for some plant; from phragmites, of or for a fence, growing in hedges; 

 perhaps originally applied to Arundo donax, which is still used in Latin 

 and Spanish- American countries for living hedges.) 



1. P. vulgaris (Lam.) B. S. P. Common Eeed. Kootstock creeping, 

 jointed; stems 5 to 12 ft. high, leafy throughout; sheaths smooth; ligule 

 reduced to a minute ring of hairs ; blades smooth-surfaced, rough-margined, 

 12 to 16 in. long or more, often 1 in. broad, rigid, attenuate-pointed, glauces- 

 cent below; panicle 10 to 18 in. long, ovoid, dense, soft, usually dull purple, 

 nodding; branches glabrous; spikelets % to % in. long; bracts lanceolate, not 

 equaling the nearest bractlet ; bractlets very narrow, subulate, the tip of the 

 lowest sometimes twisted. — (P. communis Trim; P. phragmites Karst.) 



Borders of rivers, lakes and marshes : L T pper Lake ; Suisun Marshes ; lower 

 Sacramento. Aug.-Oct. 



28. ERAGROSTIS Beauv. 



Ours low tufted or creeping annuals. Panicle sometimes spike-like and clus- 

 tered, often loose and spreading. Spikelets much like those of species of 

 Poa; usually densely many (sometimes 70) -flowered. Bracts usually not 

 equaling the nearest bractlet, unequal, keeled; lower 1-nerved, upper 1 to 

 3-nerved. Eachilla in ours not jointed between the flowers. Flowers all 

 perfect or variously unisexual, or the uppermost (rarely the lowest) reduced 

 to its bractlet and palea. Bractlet membranaceous, awnless, keeled, 3-nerved ; 

 lateral nerves sometimes obscure; palea shorter, 2-nerved or 2-keeled, often 

 incurved, frequently persistent after the bracts and bractlet have fallen. 

 Stamens 2 or 3 ; anther-lobes notched along the edges. Scales 2, sub-cuneate. 

 Styles distinct, elongated. (Greek era, earth, agrostis, a kind of grass, from 

 the low stature of some species.) 



1. E. hypnoides (Lam.) B. S. P. Creeping Meadow-grass. Stems slen- 

 der, creeping, 2 to 12 in. long, branching freely at the nodes; nodes with a 

 ring of short, spreading hairs, leafy; sheaths % in. or less long; blades !/o to 

 2 in. long, X( 2 to 1 line wide, sparingly hairy; panicle ovoid or densely 

 pyramidal-capitate, % to 2 in. long; spikelets very shortly pedicellate, oblong 

 to elliptical or ovate, laterally flattened, 2 to 7 or even 14 lines long, 10 to 

 40-flowered; bracts less than V> as long as the nearest bractlet; bractlet 

 lanceolate, acute, compressed-keeled, 5-nerved; keel scabrous-ciliate. — (E. rep- 

 tans Xees.) 



Wet places, San Joaquin and Coast Range vallevs, perhaps not indigenous. 

 Mar.-Oct. 



2. E. minor Host. Caxdy-grass. Stems tufted, 4 to 24 in. high; ligule 

 reduced to a hairy ring ; blades 1 to 6 in. long, 1 to 3 lines wide, flat or 

 involute, margins and mid-nerve glandular below; panicle open or rather 



oblong or ovate, 3 to 5 in. long, olive-green or tinged with lead-color 

 when young, whitish when "Id; spikelets oblong or lance-oblong, .''. to 10 Lines 

 long, 8 to 20-flowered, pedicels glandular; bracts sub-equal, a little shorter 

 than the nearest bractlet, acute, keel glandular; bractlet about 1 line long, 

 oval or elliptical, obtuse or mucronulate, concave, 5-nerved, glandular on the 

 mid-nerve; achene ovoid, light brown, mottled. 



