No. 76. 

 PO A DOUGLASII JN T ees. Ann. Nat. Hist. i. 284 (1838). 



Plant perennial, densely tufted, with numerous sterile shoots from a long, running', 

 stoloniferous rootstock. 



Culms erect, or decumbent at the base, nearly smooth, wiry, leafy to the middle 

 or above, 6 to 15 inches tall. 



Leaves of sterile shoots with loose, scarious sheaths and closely involute, rather 

 rigid, smooth blades, equaling the culm: leaves of the culm 2 or 3; sheaths scarious- 

 margined, smooth, striate, loose, open above, shorter than the internodes; blades 

 involute like those below and equaling them; ligule decurrent, 1 to 2 lines long. 



Inflorescence a closely flowered, almost capitate panicle, 1 to 2 inches long and 

 nearly 1 inch thick, rays in glomerate clusters, £ inch long or less, subdivided and 

 densely flowered. 



Spilielets lanceolate, compressed, 5- to 7-flowered, 3 to 5 lines long; empty glumes 

 ovate, acute, scabrous, hispid on the keels, scarious-margiued, 3 nerved, 2 to 3 lines 

 long, shorter than the lower florets; floral glumes lance-ovate, acute, often mucronate, 

 pubescent more or less throughout on the back but more so on the midnerve and mar- 

 ginal nerves, the intermediate nerves less prominent, often ciliate on the margins, 2£ 

 to 3 lines long; palet oblong, 2-toothed at the apex, pubescent on the keels, nearly as 

 long as the glume; stamens 3, with exserted anthers; stigmas 2, feathery to the base 



Plate LXXVI; 1, staminate plant; 2, pistillate plant; a, staminate spikelet; b, 

 staminate floret; c, pistillate spikelet; d, pistillate floret opened. 



California, mostly near the coast from San Francisco southward. This species is 

 completely dioecious, the staminate spikelets having slightly smaller florets with thin- 

 ner glumes. It has much the appearance of "beach grass" and was described as 

 Brizopyrum Douglasii in Bot. Beechey's Voyage. 



