528 MISC. PUBLICATION 200, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICTJLTUKFj 



Figure 1112.— Distribution of 

 Hierochloe odorata. 



to Alaska, south to New Jersey, Indiana, Iowa, Oregon, and in the 

 mountains to New Mexico and Arizona (fig. 1112); fEurasia. The 

 Indians use the grass, known as Seneca grass, to make fragrant bas- 

 kets. Also called holy grass and vanilla grass. A tall form with 

 culm blades 12 to 17 cm long, and a very loose 

 lax panicle, found in Van Cortlandt Park, New 

 York City, has been described as Hierochloe 

 nashii Kaczmarek (Savastana nashii Bickn.). 

 3. Hierochloe occidentalis Buckl. Cali- 

 fornia sweetgrass. (Fig.1113.) Culms 60 to 

 90 cm tall, with long leaves and creeping rhi- 

 zomes; sheaths scabrous; blades flat, rather 

 stiffly upright, 25 to 50 cm long, 8 to 15 mm 

 wide, narrowed to the base, acuminate, scabrous beneath; panicle 

 mostly open, 7 to 15 cm long, the subcapillary branches drooping, 

 loosely flowered or the spikelets aggregate toward the ends, the lower 

 branches 2.5 to 7 cm long; spikelets 4 to 5 mm long, the glumes with 

 a pale shining margin; staminate 

 lemmas awnless or nearly so; fertile 

 lemma appressed-pubescent toward 

 apex. % (H. macrophylla Thurb.) 

 — Forests in the redwood belt, Ore- 

 gon to Monterey, Calif., Bingen, 

 Wash. 



109. ANTHOXANTHUM L. 

 Vernalgrass 



Spikelets with 1 terminal perfect 

 floret and 2 sterile lemmas, the ra- 

 chilla disarticulating above the 

 glumes, the sterile lemmas falling 

 attached to the fertile floret; glumes 

 unequal, acute or mucronate; sterile 

 lemmas shorter than the glumes, 

 empty, awned from the back; fertile 

 lemma shorter than the sterile ones, 

 awnless; palea 1-nerved, rounded on 

 the back, enclosed in the lemma. 

 Sweet-smelling annuals or perennials, 

 with flat blades and spikelike panicles. Types species, Anthoxan- 

 thum odoratum. Name from Greek anthos, flower, and xanthos, 

 yellow, alluding to the yellow inflorescence. 



Plants perennial 1. A. odoratum. 



Plants annual 2. A. aristatum. 



1. Anthoxanthum odoratum L. Sweet vernalgrass. (Fig. 1114, 

 A.) Culms tufted, erect, slender, 30 to 60 cm tall; blades 2 to 5 mm 

 wide; panicle long-exserted, brownish yellow, acute, 2 to 6 cm long; 

 spikelets 8 to 10 mm long; glumes scabrous, the first about half as 

 long as the second; sterile lemmas subequal, appressed-pilose with 

 golden hairs, the first short-awned below the apex, the second awned 

 from near the base, the awn twisted below, geniculate, slightly 



Figure 1113.— Hierochloe occidentalis. Plant, 

 X 1; spikelet and fertile floret, X 5. (Bo- 

 lander, Calif.) 



