GRASS FAMILY. 



63 



short, straight, rigid awn; palea 2-nerved and with two winged 

 toothed keels; margins infolded. Stamens 3. Scales short, flesh y, 

 connate. Ovary smooth, ovoid, stipitate. Achene somewhat com- 

 pressed, strongly furrowed, hard; pericarp loose, 2-horned with the 

 remains of the style-bases. (Greek pleuron, side, pogon, beard, from 

 the arrangement of the awns at the sides of the spikelets.) 



1. P. Californicum (Nees) Vasey. California Side-beard. 

 Stems stoutish but weak, 1£ to 3 ft. long, tufted, simple, smooth; 

 lower nodes rooting; leaves pale yellowisn-green; sheaths smooth, 

 striate; ligule prominent, thin, about 3 lines long; lowest blades 6 to 

 7 in. long, 1£ to 2 lines wide, linear, acute, minutely scabrid above; 

 raceme 6 to 9 in. long; spikelets 6 to 12, sub-erect or spreading, soli- 

 tary, £ to 2 in. apart, 1 in. long, yellowish, 11 to 14-flowered; pedicels 

 flattened, 1 to 3 lines long; tips of the bracts and bractlets shining 

 with a silvery luster; bracts 2 to 3 lines long; apex irregularly dentic- 

 ulate; nerves prominent; upper bract the longer; bractlets 2i to 3 

 lines long, rough-scabrous, the three central nerves united above to 

 form the awn; awn 1J to 5 lines long; palea rough on the herba- 

 ceous parts; appendages to the keel with 1 prominent stout, acuminate 

 tooth and several irregular smaller ones. — (Lophochlsena Californica 

 Nees. ) 



Apparently restricted to California, in wet meadows and marshy 

 ground, rare: Mt. Eden; Oakland Hills; "Walnut Creek; Ross Valley; 

 San Francisco. May-June. 



32. DISTICH LIS Raf. Salt-gra>>. 



Dioecious perennial. Panicle densely spike-like; branches erect, 

 often bearing 2 to 3 spikelets. Spikelets many-flowered, laterally 

 compressed, shortly pedicellate. Bracts narrow, keeled, faintly 

 many-nerved, awnless. Bractlet obscurely many-nerved, awnless; 

 palea with enfolded margins, keeled; keels narrowly winged or 

 prominent, ciliate. Scales broad. Staminate flowers with 3 stamens, 

 their ovaries rudimentary or obsolete; pistillate occasionally with 

 imperfect stamens. Ovary glabrous, stipitate, tapering into 2 rather 

 long styles. (Greek distichlia, a double row, probably having refer- 

 ence to the leaf arrangement.) 



1. D. spicata (L.) Greene. Salt-grass. Rootstock stout, 

 creeping, scaly; stems stout, rigid, erect, 4 to 18 in. high, often 

 branched below, leafy throughout; leaves pale green, strictly 2-ranked; 

 sheaths glabrous, slightly bearded at the throat; ligule reduced to a 

 mere ring; blade 1£ to 4, rarely 7, in. long, 1£ lines wide at the base, 

 spreading, rigid, margins minutely ciliate; panicle 1 to 3 in. long, 

 pale green; branches appressed, spikelet-bearing to the base; spikelets 

 4 to 6 lines long, 5 to 12-flowered, keeled; bracts shorter than the 

 lowest bractlet, unequal, obtuse; bractlets keeled, obtuse, green, 

 purplish or straw-colored; anthers purplish. — (D. maritima Raf.) 



Common throughout the State, usually near salt water. Salt- 

 marshes at San Francisco; Belmont; West Berkeley; Oakland; 

 Alameda; Agnews; Martinez; Tomales Bay; Drake's Estero. Alkali 



