56 



GRAMINEJE. 



Spikes digitate; prostrate, running grass, rooting at the nodes 23. Cynodon. 

 Spikes scattered along the main axis of the panicle; erect plants. 

 Bracts very unequal; long, narrow, acuminate; tidal creeks and marshes . . 



24. Spartina. 



Bracts equal, short, broad and boat-shaped, abruptly acute; sloughs and 

 banks of rivers and streams 25. Beckmannia. 



23. CYNODON Rich. Dog's-tooth-grass. 

 Perennial. Leaf-blades narrow, usually flat, often short. Panicle 

 branches 2 to 6, digitate at the apex of the peduncle, erect or radially 

 spreading. Spikelets alternate, sessile (in ours) on one side of the 

 rachis, 1-flowered. Bracts 2, persistent, often narrow, keeled; rachilla 

 jointed above the bracts and often prolonged bej T ond the base 

 of the bractlet as a bristle. Bractlet boat-shaped, distinctly keeled; 

 palea often shorter and narrower, hyaline, 2-nerved. Stamens 3. 

 Achene glabrous, not channeled. (Greek kuon, a dog, odous, a 

 tooth.) 



1. C. Dactylon (L.) Pers. Bermuda-grass. Stems prostrate, 

 creeping, often several feet in length, clothed with undeveloped 

 sheaths, producing roots and tufts of leaves at the nodes and often 

 one or more prostrate, barren branches; flowering stems 4 to 24 in. 

 high, leafy; sheaths much crowded, loose, strongly striate; ligule 

 short, ciliate with long hairs; blades about an inch long and a line 

 wide, stiff and sometimes involute, glaucous; panicle-branches 3 to 6, 

 1 or 2 in. long, concavo-convex; spikelets about 1 line long, appressed, 

 closely imbricate; bracts shorter than the bractlet, ovate-lanceolate, 

 nearly equal, usually spreading, rough on the keel or not; bractlet 

 smooth, keel and margins ciliate; palea narrow. — (Capriola Dactvlon 

 Ktze.) 



Tropical species naturalized in California and frequently occurring 

 as a roadside weed on the outskirts of towns, especially in the warm 

 interior valleys; in the Coast Ranges at San Rafael, Pacheco, Berke- 

 ley and Alameda; Bolander records having seen it in the vicinity of 

 San Francisco in 1862. Apr. -Oct. 



24. SPARTINA Schreb. Cord-grass 

 Mostly maritime perennials. Stems simple, erect, reed-like but 

 short. Leaf-blades long, tough. Panicle narrow, erect, dense, com- 

 posed of several erect, approximate spikes; spikelets large, compressed, 

 more or less imbricate, in rows on two sides of the triangular panicle- 

 branches, 1-flowered. Bracts unequal, keeled, acute, or bristle- 

 pointed, about as long as the whole spikelet; rachilla sometimes pro- 

 longed beyond the insertion of the flower. Bractlet sub-hyaline, 

 faintly 2-nerved; palea equaling it or longer. Scales short, obtuse. 

 Stamens 3. Style-branches long, slender. (Greek spartine, a rope or 

 cord made of spartos, Spartium junceum and Stipa tenacissima.) 



1. S. stricta var. glabra Muhl. Cord-grass. Rootstock creep- 

 ing, scaly; stems very stout, 1£ to 4 ft. high; leaf-blades long, flat, 

 smooth, tapering from about 3 lines wide near the middle to long, 

 slender points; panicle 6 to 9 in. long; branches 2 to 3 in. long; 



