GRASS FAMILY. P,9 



awn usually less than 1 line long, occasionally nearly 2 lines long; anthers 

 purplish, - 1 -. to 3 lines long. — (F. scabrella Thurb. in Bot. CaL, not of 

 Book.) 



Forming large and ornamental tufts on the shady banks of caiions in the 

 Coast Eanges: Oakland Hills; Olema; Pt. Eeyes. Apr.-June. 



3. F. denticulata Beal, is described as a stout and rather handsome grass, 

 with loose and drooping panicle and conspicuous awns 4 to 6 lines long. The 

 specimens on which the species was founded (as F. ambigua Vasey, not of Le 

 (rail) were collected in Oregon by Thos. Howell, ''California" by Kellogg 

 and Harford, no. 1116, and Santa Cruz by Dr. Anderson. 



4. F. microstachys (Munro) Xutt. Western Fescue. Annual; stems 

 erect. 6 to 12, or in shady places, 24 in. high; panicle 1 to 5% in. long; 

 branches second, usually divergent, remote, the longest l 1 ^ to 2 in. long; 

 spikelets remote, 2C> to 5 lines long, 1 to 5-flowered; bracts glabrous or 

 scabrous, awnless, sub-equal, upper about 2 lines long; lower iy> to 2^ lines 

 long; bractlet l 1 /^ to 3 lines long, awn slender, 2% to 5 lines long. 



Napa Valley; Highland Springs; Berkeley; Mt. Tamalpais; Cazadero. 

 Apr. -July. Var. pauciflora Scribn. Inflorescence often reduced to a spike; 

 spikelets 1 to 2 -flowered. — Berkeley Hills. Var. ciliata A. Gray. Bractlets, 

 and sometimes the bracts also, densely hisped. — Xot uncommon in the foot- 

 hills of the San Joaquin Valley and in Southern California; apparently seldom 

 met with in the Coast Eange valleys : Napa City. 



5. F. myuros L. Squirrel-tail Fescue. The form of this variable 

 annual species which is recognized in Europe and the eastern States as 

 typical, F. pseudo-myuros Soyer-VVillemet, does not appear to occur within our 

 limits, if in California at all. It has the panicle 3 to 12 in. long, very slender 

 and contracted; bracts unequal, the upper 2 to 3 times as long as the lower 

 and usually little more than % the length of the contiguous bractlet, exclusive 

 of its awn; bractlet not ciliate. Var. ciliata Coss. is readily distinguished 

 by the prominent marginal ciliation of the upper half of at least the uppermost 

 bractlets, the marginal hairs being long, spreading and well exserted; bracts 

 very unequal, the lower very short or minute, the upper 3 to 8 times longer, 

 much as in var. ambigua Hook.; awn of the bractlet 3 to 7 lines long. — (F. 

 myuros of Thurber in Bot. Cal. not of L.) 



Native of the Mediterranean Region, naturalized in California from Mendocino 

 Co. to San Bernardino : San Francisco ; Solano Co. ; Bodega Pt. ; Berkeley 

 Hills; Antioch. Apr.-June. Var. sciuroides Coss. Upper portion of the 

 stem usually well exserted from the sheath; panicle shorter than in typical 

 F. myuros, usually 2 to 4 in. long, less contracted; bracts less unequal (in 

 which it closely approaches F. microstachys Xutt.), lower 2 to 3 lines long, 

 upper 4 lines long, nearly equaling the contiguous floret; bractlet glabrous be- 

 low, minutely scabrous near the apex, not ciliate. — (F. sciuroides Roth.) — Close- 

 ly related to the typical F. myuros, but differing from it in most of the 

 above points and from F. microstachys in the more numerous flowers to the 

 spikelet and the erect branches and spikelets. Native of Europe; now 

 thoroughly naturalized and common in middle California: Bodega Point; 

 Berkeley; Oakland; San Francisco. Mar. -June. 



39. BROMUS.L. Bbome-gbass. 



Sheaths often closed; leaf-blades flat. Panicle usually open; branches 



slender and at length spreading, rarely dense or racemed with erect branches. 



