No. 25. 



ALOPECURUS CALIFORNICUS Vasey, Bull. Torr. Club, xv. 13. 



Plant perennial, tufted. 



Culms geniculate below, often branched, slender, terete, smooth, 10 to 15 inches 

 high. 



Leaves of culm 4 or 5; sheaths rather loose, upper one inflated, smooth, shorter 

 than the internodes; blades flat, hispid above, 1 to 3 inches long; ligule membrana- 

 ceous, acute, 2 lines long. 



Inflorescence a dense cylindrical spike 1 to 2 inches long, £ to § inches thick. 



Spikelets 1-flowered, compressed, elliptical, 1^ to If lines long; empty glumes 

 oblong, obtuse, carinate, slightly united at base, thin, purple above, hairy on the keel 

 and slightly pubescent on the obscure lateral nerves, 1^ to If lines long; floral glume 

 oblong-ovate, obtuse, edges united ^ from the base, slightly chartaceous, smooth, 

 obscurely 4-nerved, about equaling the empty glumes; awn arising near the base of 

 the glume, twisted, bent at the middle, 2£ to 3 lines long; palet wanting; grain flat- 

 tened, broadly lanceolate, oblique, light green, f line long. 



Plate XXV; 1, a\ spikelet with empty glumes spread; l>\ empty glumes; c 1 , 

 floral glume closed; 2, a 2 and b 2 , panicle, spikelet, and floral glume of A. pratensls 

 drawn for comparison. 



Southern California. This species differs from A. pratensis chiefly in its smaller 

 size, the smaller spikelets, and obtuse empty glumes, which are united less than in that 

 species. 



