GRASS FAMILY. 



59 



an awn or cuspidate point between the teeth, clothed with long, silky 

 hairs. Palea shorter, hyaline, pubescent on the keels. Stamens 3. 

 Ovary naked. (Latin arundo, a reed or cane.) 



1. A. Donax L. Giant Reed. Rootstock very stout, creeping, 

 tufted; roots stout, fibrous; stems in dense clumps, 10 to 20 ft. high, 

 mostly with short, slender branches from the upper nodes, leafy 

 throughout; leaves pale green; sheath striate, bearded and somewhat 

 auricled at the throat; ligule about 1 line long, barely exserted, 

 truncate, entire, uniform in width all around; blade striate, mostly 

 2 to 3 in. wide, the uppermost H to 2 ft. long; spikelets 5 to 7 lines 

 long, 2 to 3-flowered; bracts equaling the whole spikelet, lanceolate- 

 acuminate, entire, awnless, glabrous; bractlet acuminate; awn often 

 twice the length of the teeth. 



Introduced as an ornamental cultural plant and occasionally met 

 with as an escape from gardens. It is not known to flower with us. 

 Alameda Marshes, 1898, Davy. 



27. PHRAGM ITES Trin. 



Perennial water-reed. Stems tall, stout. Leaf-blades flat. Panicle 

 large, much branched, feathery. Spikelets sub-terete. Bracts short, 

 unequal, membranaceous, keeled. Rachilla terminating in a rudi- 

 mentary bractlet or point, elongated and jointed between the flowers, 

 the joints clothed, except below the lowest flower, with long, silky 

 hairs which surround the bractlets. Bractlets 3 to 6, very long- 

 acuminate, 3-nerved, entire; the lowest empty or bearing a staminate 

 flower with 1 to 3 stamens, the upper bearing perfect flowers with 3 

 stamens; palea very much shorter than its bractlet, hyaline, 2- 

 ribbed. Scales large, obtuse. Ovary glabrous. (A Greek name 

 used by Dioscorides for some plant; from phragmites, of or for a 

 fence, growing in hedges; perhaps originally applied to Arundo 

 Donax, which is still used in Latin and Spanish-American countries 

 for living hedges.) 



1. P. vulgaris (Lam.) B. S. P. Common Heed. Rootstock 

 creeping, jointed; stems 5 to 12 ft. high, leafy throughout; sheaths 

 smooth; ligule reduced to a minute ring of hairs; blades smooth- 

 surfaced, rough-margined, 12 to 16 in. long or more, often 1 

 in. broad, rigid, attenuate-pointed, glaucescent below; panicle 10 

 to 18 in. long,, ovoid, dense, soft, usually dull purple, nodding; 

 branches glabrous; spikelets \ to f in. long; bracts lanceolate, not 

 equaling the nearest bractlet; bractlets very narrow, subulate, the 

 tip of the lowest sometimes twisted. — (P. communis Trin.; P. 

 Phragmites Karst.) 



Borders of rivers, lakes and marshes: tule marshes at Upper Lake; 

 Benicia; Suisun Marshes; Lower Sacramento. Aug. -Oct. 



28. ERAGROSTIS Beauv. 



Ours low tufted or creeping annuals. Panicle sometimes spike-like 

 and clustered, often loose and spreading. Spikelets much like those 

 of species of Poa; usually densely many (sometimes 70)-floweved. 



