70 



GRAMINE^E. 



States as typical, F. Pseudo-Myuros Soyer-Willemet, does not appear 

 to occur within our limits, if in California at all. It has the panicle 

 3 to 12 in. long, very slender and contracted; bracts unequal, the 

 upper 2 to 3 times as long as the lower and usually little more than £ 

 the length of the contiguous bractlet, exclusive of its awn; bractlet 

 not ciliate. Var. ciliata Coss. is readily distinguished by the promi- 

 nent marginal ciliation of the upper half of at least the uppermost 

 bractlets, the marginal hairs being long, spreading and well exserted; 

 bracts very unequal, the lower very short or minute, the upper 

 3 to 8 times longer, much as in var. ambigua Hook.; awn of the 

 bractlet 3 to 7 lines long. — (F. Mvuros of Thurber in Bot. Cal. not 

 of L.) 



Native of the Mediterranean Region, naturalized in California 

 from Mendocino Co. to San Bernardino: San Francisco, 1865, 

 Bolonder; Little Oak, Jepson; Bodega Point, Eastwood; Berkeley 

 Hills; Briones Hills; Antioch; Angel Island. Apr.-June. 



Var. sciuroides Coss. Upper portion of the stem usually well 

 exserted from the sheath; panicle shorter than in typical F. Myuros, 

 usually 2 to 4 in. long, less contracted; bracts less unequal (in which 

 it closely approaches F. microstachys Nutt.), lower 2 to 3 lines long, 

 upper 4 lines long, nearly equaling the contiguous floret; bractlet 

 glabrous below, minutely scabrous near the apex, not ciliate. — (F. 

 sciuroides Roth.) — Closely related to the typical F. Myuros, but 

 differing from it in most of the above points and from F. microstachys 

 in the more numerous flowers to the spikelet and the erect branches 

 and spikelets. Native of Europe; now thoroughly naturalized and 

 common in middle California: Bodega Point, Eastivood; Berkeley; 

 Oakland; Point Isabel; Briones Hills; Lake Merced; Presidio, San 

 Francisco. Mar.-June. 



39. B ROM US L. Brome-grass. 

 Sheaths often closed; leaf-blades flat. Panicle usually open; 

 branches slender and at length spreading, rarely dense or racemed 

 with erect branches. Spikelets 5 to many-flowered, laterally com- 

 pressed or sub-terete, oval to lanceolate, erect or often drooping. 

 Bracts not reaching to the apex of the lowest bractlet, membranaceous, 

 acute, awnless; lower 1 to 5-nerved; upper 3 to 9-nerved. Rachilla 

 jointed below the bractlets. Bractlets rounded on the back below, 

 somewhat keeled above 5 to 9-nerved, awned or bristle-pointed; awn 

 mostly arising from a little below the usually shortly 2-fid, hyaline 

 apex. Palea nearly as long as the bractlet, 2-fid, with 2 prominent, 

 usually, pectinate-ciliate keels. Ovary obovate or linear, crowned by 

 a 2 to' 3-lobed, hairy, membranaceous appendage; styles very short, 

 more or less lateral, plainly arising below the apex of the ovary; 

 stigmas feathery. Achene oblong or linear, often more or less condu- 

 plicate, grooved, adhering to the palea or more or less to the base of 

 the bractlet. (Bromos, the ancient Greek name for a kind of oats, 

 derived from broma, food. Closely allied to Festuca.) 



Lower bract 1 to 3-nerved. 

 Perennial; spikelets narrow, sub-terete, acuminate before anthesis: nwns 1)4 

 to 2% lines long V. B. Isevipes. 



