GRASS FAMILY. 65 



points in the State but all the specimens we have seen under this name are 

 referable to B. minor. 



2. B. minor L. Annual Quaking-grass. Annual; ligule iy 2 to 3 lines 

 long ; blades scabrous ; spikelets deltoid, the bracts extending farther out- 

 ward on each side than do the adjacent bractlets. 



Naturalized: San Francisco; Mt. Tamalpais; Lake San Andreas; Mill 

 Valley; Olema and northward. 



3. B. maxima L. Eattlesxake-grass. Annual, 16 to 24 in. high ; spike- 

 lets y 2 in. long and almost as broad at the base; bracts dark brown with broad, 

 scarious margins ; bractlets chestnut-brown. 



A garden escape at Healdsburg and Monterey. 



34. DACTYLIS L. 



Perennial. Panicle usually dense and branched, secund, glomerate and 

 interrupted, bearing thick, crowded, secund fascicles of spikelets at the ends of 

 the short branches. Spikelets sessile, laterally much compressed, somewhat 

 concave on the inner side, 3 to 5 or rarely only 1-flowered, the terminal 

 bractlet and palea empty. Bracts mucronate, sharply keeled; lower 1-nerved; 

 upper larger, 1 to 3-nerved. Eachilla glabrous. Bractlet larger than the 

 bracts, sharply keeled and fringed on the keel, the 5 nerves converging into 

 an awn-like scabrid point; palea as long, 2-fid, 2-nerved, nerves ciliate. Scales 

 2, with an acute, marginal tooth. Stamens 3. Ovary glabrous. (The ancient 

 name for some grass with finger-like spikes, from Greek daktulos, a finger 

 or finger's breadth.) 



1. D. glomerata L. Orchard-grass. Eootstock tufted and somewhat 

 creeping; stems at length forming large, dense tufts, erect from a shortly 

 decumbent, leafy base, 2 to 3 ft. high, stout; leaves glaucescent; sheaths 

 scabrid; ligule 2 to 6 lines long, laciniate; blades 2 to 3V-> lines wide, scabrous, 

 soft; panicle 2 to 6 in. long, pinkish when in flower; branches solitary, 

 scabrous, sub-erect, the lowest 1 to 4 in. long, branching and spikelet-bearing 

 only at the ends; clusters of spikelets ovoid; spikelets 3!/> to 4 lines long; 

 bracts about 3 lines long, subequal, strongly ciliate on the keel; bractlet 

 2 to 4 lines long, lanceolate, scabrid ; anthers 1 to 1% lines long, cream- 

 colored, apparently all in a spikelet maturing at the same time. 



Native of Europe, naturalized at Berkeley, San Francisco, Olema and 

 Eureka. June-Aug. 



35. LAMARCKIA Moench. 



Annual. Stems tufted, branching. Leaves flat. Panicle secund, racemose, 

 short, dense; lowest branches bearing 1 to 3, uppermost only 1, spikelet. 

 Spikelets spreading or drooping, fascicled, of two kinds; central spikelet, ter- 

 minating the branch, bearing a perfect flower; lateral spikelets of ten or 

 more empty, obtuse, awnless bractlets, denticulate above. Bracts narrow, 

 slightly unequal. Perfect flower stipitate; rachilla prolonged beyond it and 

 bearing a diminutive empty bractlet with a slender awn; flower-enclosing 

 bractlet acute with a long, straight, dorsal awn near the apex; palea 2-keeled. 

 Stamens 3. Styles short, distinct, barbellate almost throughout. (A mono- 

 fcypie genus, named in honor of La Marck, 1744-1829, a celebrated French 

 botanist. | 



1. L. aurea (L.) Moench. (Ioldex-top. Stems erect from a somewhat 

 decumbent base, 4 to 14 in. high, smooth, leafy, sometimes branching below; 

 sheaths inflated, smooth; ligule usually very prominent, */> to 6 lines long, 

 decurrent as a broad, scarious margin to the mouth of the sheath; blades thin, 



