60 



GRAMINEiE. 



Bracts usually not equaling the nearest bractlet, unequal, keeled; 

 lower 1-nerved, upper 1 to 3-nerved. Kachilla in ours not jointed 

 between the flowers. Flowers all perfect or variously unisexual, or 

 the uppermost (rarely the lowest) reduced to its bractlet and palea. 

 Bractlet membranaceous, awnless, keeled, 3-nerved; lateral nerves 

 sometimes obscure; palea shorter, 2-nerved or 2-keeled, often incurved, 

 frequently persistent after the bracts and bractlet have fallen. Sta- 

 mens 2 or 3; anther-lobes notched along the edges. Scales 2, sub- 

 cuneate. Styles distinct, elongated. (Greek era, earth, agrostis, a 

 kind of grass, from the low stature of some species.) 



1. E. hypnoides (Lam.) B. S. P. Creeping Meadow-grass. 

 Stems slender, creeping, 2 to 12 in. long, branching freely at the 

 nodes; nodes with a ring of short, spreading hairs, leafy; sheaths 

 £ in. or less long; blades £ to 2 in. long, J to 1 line wide, sparingly 

 hairy; panicle ovoid or densely pyramidal-capitate, h to 2 in. long; 

 spikelets very shortly pedicellate, oblong to elliptical or ovate, 

 laterally flattened, 2 to 7 or even 14 lines long, 10 to 40-flowered; 

 bracts less than J as long as the nearest bractlet; bractlet lanceolate, 

 acute, compressed-keeled, 5-nerved; keel scabrous-ciliate. — (E. reptans 

 Nees.) 



Wet places in the San Joaquin and Coast Bange Valleys, perhaps 

 not indigenous within our limits: Lathrop; moist sand-banks and 

 beaches along the Kussian Kiver above Duncan's Mills. Mar.-Oct. 



2. E. minor Host. Candy-grass. Stems tufted, 4 to 24 in. 

 high; ligule reduced to a hairy ring; blades 1 to 6 in. long, 1 to 3 

 lines wide, flat or involute, margins and mid-nerve glandular 

 below; panicle open or rather dense, oblong or ovate, 3 to 5 

 in. long, olive-green or tinged with lead-color when young, 

 whitish when old; spikelets oblong or lance-oblong, 3 to 10 lines 

 long, 8 to 20-flowered, pedicels glandular; bracts sub-equal, a little 

 shorter than the nearest bractlet, acute, keel glandular; bract- 

 let about 1 line long, oval or elliptical, obtuse or mucronulate, 

 concave, 5-nerved, glandular on the mid-nerve; achene ovoid, light 

 brown, mottled. 



Native of S. Europe; reported by Dr. Behr as occurring at 

 San Francisco. 



Var. megastachya (Gray), (E. major Host; E. poa?oides var. 

 megastachya Gray). Stink-grass. Differs in having denser pan- 

 icles and usually larger and more numerously (10 to 50)-flowered 

 spikelets. — Introduced in the San Joaquin Valley at Tulare, and 

 reported also from San Francisco and Monterey. 



29. KCELERIA Pers. Kceler-grass. 

 Panicle contracted, cylindrical, spike-like. Spikelets oblong, com- 

 pressed, 2 to 5 or 7 (rarely only l)-flowered. Bracts scarcely equaling 

 the bractlet, unequal, narrow, compressed, acute or produced into 

 short, straight awns or points, keeled, membranaceous and broadly 

 scarious-margined; lower 1, upper 3-nerved with rather faint nerves. 

 Bractlets secund, imbricate, membranaceous, acuminate, obscurely 



