f>4 GRAMINEAE. 



Leaves pale yellowish-green; sheaths smooth, striate; ligule prominent, thin, 

 about 3 lines long; lowest blades to 7 in. long, \y.> to 2 lines wide, linear, 

 acute, minutely scabrid above; raceme 6 to 9 in. long; spikelets 6 to 12, sub- 

 erect or spreading, solitary, y% to 2 in. apart, 1 in. long, yellowish, 11 to 

 14 flowered ; pedicels flattened, 1 to 3 lines long; tips of the bracts and 

 bractlets shining with a silvery luster; bracts 2 to 3 lines long; apex irregu- 

 larly denticulate; nerves prominent; upper bract the longer; bractlets 2% 

 to 3 lines long, rough-scabrous, the three central nerves united above to form 

 the awn; awn 1% to 5 lines long; palea rough on the herbaceous parts; 

 appendages to the keel with 1 prominent stout, acuminate tooth and several 

 irregular smaller ones. — (Lophochlaena calif ornica Nees.) 



Apparently restricted to California; wet meadows and marshy ground, 

 rare: Mt. Eden; Oakland Hills; Walnut Creek; Boss Valley; San Francisco. 

 May-June. 



32. DISTICHLIS Eaf. Salt-crass. 



Dioecious perennial. Panicle densely spike-like; branches erect, often bear- 

 ing 2 to 3 spikelets. Spikelets many-flowered, laterally compressed, shortly 

 pedicellate. Bracts narrow, keeled, faintly many-nerved, awnless. Bractlet 

 obscurely many-nerved, awnless; palea with enfolded margins, keeled; keels 

 narrowly winged or prominent, ciliate. Scales broad. Staminate flowers 

 with 3 stamens, their ovaries rudimentary or obsolete ; pistillate occasionally 

 with imperfect stamens. Ovary glabrous, stipitate, tapering into 2 rather long 

 styles. (Greek distichlia, a double row, probably having reference to the leaf 

 arrangement.) 



1. D. spicata (L.) Greene. Salt-grass. Rootstock stout, creeping, scaly; 

 stems stout, rigid, erect, 4 to 18 in. high, often branched below, leafy through- 

 out; leaves pale green, strictly 2-ranked; sheaths glabrous, slightly bearded at 

 the throat; ligule reduced to a mere ring; blade 1% to 4, rarely 7, in. 'long, 

 \y>2 lines wide at the base, spreading, rigid, margins minutely ciliate; panicle 

 1 to 3 in. long, pale green; branches appressed; spikelet-bearing to the base; 

 spikelets 4 to 6 lines long, 5 to 12-flowered, keeled; bracts shorter than the 

 lowest bractlet, unequal, obtuse; bractlets keeled, obtuse, green, purplish or 

 straw-colored; anthers purplish. — (D. maritima Eaf.) 



Common throughout the State in salt marshes or on alkaline plains. Aug. 



33. BRIZA L. Quaking-grass. 

 Leaf blades narrow. Panicle effuse, branches slender, in ty> whorls. Spikelets 

 pendulous, large, ovate or somewhat cordate, flattish-turgid, many-flowered; 

 pedicels capillary. Bracts subequal, broad, rounded on the back, 3 or 5 

 to 11 -nerved, awnless. Rachilla jointed between the flowers. Bractlets 

 imbricate, roundish, boat-shaped or saccate, scarious-margined, many-nerved, 

 in ours very obtuse; uppermost often empty; palea small, ovate, flat, its nerves 

 ciliate. Scales 2, ovate lanceolate. Stamens 3. Ovary glabrous; styles short. 

 Aclinic strongly ob-compressed, broadly ovoid. (Ancient Greek name, used 

 by Galen for a kind of grain, "like rye,'' grown in Thrace and Macedonia.) 



Spikelets 4 lines or less long. 



Perennial; ligule '/> to 1 line long; spikelets ovate; bracts not equaling the nearest 



bractlet; leaves smooth 1. B. media. 



Annual; ligule l ' \ to 3 lines long; spikelets deltoid; bracts exceeding the nearesl 

 bractlet; leaves scabrous -■ B. minor. 



Spikelets 6 lines long and at the base almost as broad; bracts dark brown, with broad. 



scarious margins; bractlets chestnut-brown J. B. maxima. 



1. B. media L., PERENNIAL QUAKING-GBASS, has been reported from various 



