GRASS FAMILY. 



67 



Apparently peculiar to California, common in drifting sands along 

 the seashore: Monterey; San Francisco; Tiburon; Point Reyes; 

 Bodega Point and northward. Apr. 



4. P. secunda Presl. Tufted perennial; stems stout, rigid, erect, 

 about 1 ft. high; sheaths minutely scabrid above; ligule H to 2 lines 

 long, acute, glabrous or minutely pubescent on the back; blades 

 short, flat, f to 1 line wide; panicle 3 to 4£ in. long, oblong, acute, 

 contracted, densish; branches scabrous, erect, overlapping, about 3 at a 

 node, the longest 1 to 2 in. long, spikelet-bearing on the upper three- 

 fourths; spikelets 2£ to 3£ lines long, lanceolate-acuminate, about 

 5-flowered; pedicels scabrous; bracts acute, scabrid, 3-nerved below, 

 the nerves evanescent in the broad, scarious margin; lower 11, upper 

 If lines long; bractlet 2 lines long, obtuse when flattened out, scabrid 

 above, 5-nerved, pubescent on the nerves below, all but the mid- 

 nerve evanescent below the broadly-scarious apex; palea If lines long, 

 emarginate, ciliate on the keels; anthers purple, 1 line long; ovary | 

 line long, stigmas \ line, achene a little over 1 line. — (Atropis Cali- 

 fornia Thurb. in Bot. Cal., in part; A. Fendleriana Beal, in part.) 



One of the " bunch- grasses " of dry hillsides, apparently quite 

 widely distributed, though perhaps often confused with other species. 

 Antioch; Angel Island, etc. 



5. P. unilateralis Scribn. Tufted perennial; rootstock stout, not 

 creeping; stems stout, erect or ascending from a decumbent base, 

 6 to 10 in. high, freely branching below; sheaths smooth, inflated and 

 loose; ligule \\ to 3 lines long, acute; blades 1 to 3 in. long, flat or 

 conduplicate, f to. lines wide, abruptly acute; panicle stout, con- 

 tracted, dense and spike-like, 1 to 3 in. long, \ in. broad, often 

 one-sided; branches densely spikelet-bearing almost to the base, 

 scabrous; spikelets almost sessile, 2 to 4 lines long; bracts acute, 

 \\ lines long, 3-nerved, ciliately scabrous on the keel, minutely 

 ciliate on the margins; rachilla pubescent; flowers 4 to 7, imperfectly 

 dioecious; bractlet 2 lines long, acute when flattened out, faintly 

 5-nerved, scabrously ciliate on the mid-nerve, not woolly below; 

 palea 2-fid, strongly ciliate on the keels; anthers yellow or purplish, 

 1 line long. 



Moist, sandy places on the coast bluffs north and south of San 

 Francisco: Santa Cruz (type locality), Anderson; Point Reyes; 

 Bodega Point; Point Arena. Apr. -June. 



37. PANICULARIA Fabr. Manna-grass. 



Tall grasses of wet places. Stems smooth. Panicle-branches in £ 

 whorls. Spikelets linear, sub-terete, many-flowered. Bracts not 

 equaling the nearest bractlet, unequal, membranaceous, convex, 

 awnless. Rachilla jointed below the bractlets. Bractlet caducous, 

 cartilaginous, convex or flattish, not keeled; tip obtuse or slightly 

 denticulate, usually scarious; nerves 3 to 9, conspicuous below, 

 evanescent upwards; palea 2-fid, 2-keeled, nerves ciliate. Scales 

 fleshy, united, truncate. Stamens 3. Ovary glabrous. (Latin 



