GRASS FAMILY. 07 



Apparently peculiar to California; common in drifting sands along the 

 seashore: Monterey; San Francisco; Tiburon; Ft. Reyes; Bodega Pt. and 

 northward. Apr. 



4. P. secunda Presl. Tufted perennial; stems stout, rigid, erect, about 

 1% ft. high; sheaths minutely scabrid above; ligule iy 2 to 2 lines long, 

 acute, glabrous or minutely pubescent on the back; blades short, flat or con- 

 duplicate, % to 1 line wide; panicle 3 to 4% in. long, oblong, acute, con- 

 tracted, densish; branches scabrous, erect, overlapping, about 3 at a node, 

 the longest 1 to 2 in. long, spikelet-bearing on the upper three-fourths; spike- 

 lets 2% to 3 1 /. lines long, lanceolate-acuminate, 4 to 5-flowered; pedicels 

 scabrous; bracts acute, scabrid, 3-nerved below, the nerves evanescent in 

 the broad, scarious margin, 1^4 to 1% lines long; bractlet 2 lines long, acutish, 

 scabrid above, pubescent on the nerves below, o-nerved, all but the mid-nerve 

 evanescent below the broadly-searious apex; palea 1% lines long, emarginate, cili- 

 ate on the keels; anthers purple, 1 line long; ovary 14 line long, stigmas 

 % line, achene a little over 1 line. — (Atropis calif ornica Thurb. in Bot. Cal., 

 in part; A. fendleriana Beal, in part.) 



One of the " bunch-grasses' ' of dry hillsides, apparently quite widely 

 distributed, though perhaps often confused with other species. Antioch; 

 Angel Island, etc. 



5. P. unilateralis Scribn. Tufted perennial ; rootstock stout, not creep- 

 ing; stems stout, erect or ascending from a decumbent base, 6 to 10 in. high, 

 freely branching below; sheaths smooth, inflated and loose; ligule 1% to 3 

 lines long, acute; blades 1 to 3 in. long, flat or conduplicate, % to l 1 /^ lines 

 wide, abruptly acute; panicle stout, contracted, dense and spike-like, 1 to 3 

 in. long, 14 in. broad, often one-sided; branches densely spikelet-bearing 

 almost to the base, scabrous ; spikelets almost sessile, 2 to 4 lines long ; 

 bracts acute, 1V> lines long, 3-nerved, ciliately scabrous on the keel, minutely 

 ciliate on the margins; rachilla pubescent; flowers 4 to 7, imperfectly 

 dioecious; bractlet 2 lines long, acute when flattened out, faintly o-nerved, 

 scabrously ciliate on the mid-nerve, not woolly below; palea 2 -fid, strongly 

 ciliate on the keels; anthers yellow or purplish, 1 line long. 



Moist sandy places on the coast bluffs north and south of San Francisco: 

 Santa Cruz (type locality, Dr. Anderson); Pt. Reyes; Bodega Pt.; Pt. 

 Arena. Apr.-June. 



37. PANICULARIA Fabr. Manna-grass. 



Tall grasses of wet places. Stems smooth. Panicle-branches in y 2 whorls. 

 Spikelets linear, sub-terete, many-flowered. Bracts not equaling the nearest 

 bractlet, unequal, membranaceous, convex, awnless. Rachilla jointed below 

 the bractlets. Bractlet caducous, cartilaginous, convex or flattish, not keeled ; 

 tip obtuse or slightly denticulate, usually scarious; nerves 3 to 9, conspicuous 

 below, evanescent upwards; palea 2-fid, 2-keeled, nerves ciliate. Scales fleshy, 

 united, truncate. Stamens 3. Ovary glabrous. (Latin panicula, a tuft or 

 panicle on plants, having reference to the inflorescence.) 



1. P. pauciflora (Presl.) Ktze. Smooth Manna-grass. Stout perennial 

 of fresh-water marshes; root-stock stout, creeping; stems 2 to 4 ft. high, 

 stout, sometimes L'i._, lines in diameter, erect from a decumbenl base, rooting 



at the lower nodes. Leafy throughout; leaves about '!; sheaths split in the base, 

 smooth, pale green; ligule broad, obtuse, entire but soon becoming 



lacerate. 1 to 3% line- Long; blade 4 to 12 in. long. :', to 7% lines wide, flat, 

 scabrous; panicle lax. narrow, 6 to s in. long, pale green; branches in ' '.. 



