74 



GRAMINEiE. 



An introduced weed, native of the Mediterranean Region: between 

 Bolinas and Olema, 1886, Greene; South San Francisco, 1891, 

 Brandegee; Martinez; Point Reyes, Davy; reported also from Tiburon, 

 Behr. June-July. 



41. SCRIBNERIA Hackel. 



A low, slender, erect, tufted annual. Inflorescence a strict, slender, 

 jointed spike," breaking up at maturity. Spikelets 1-flowered, sessile 

 and half embedded in the notches of the rachis, solitary or rarely in 

 pairs, alternate, long and slender. Bracts much exceeding the bract- 

 let, persistent, unequal, linear-lanceolate, acute, awnless, eccentrically 

 keeled, very rigid; upper 3 to 5-nerved, lower 2 to 3-nerved and 

 ribbed. Rachilla very short, jointed above the bracts, with a ring of 

 hairs surrounding the base of the bractlet, prolonged as a minute 

 hairy point. Bractlet and palea sub-equal, keeled; bractlet charta- 

 ceous, 1-nerved, toothed at apex and bearing a stout awn about its 

 own length from between the teeth; palea hyaline, 1-nerved, acumi- 

 nate and deeply 2-fid. Scales obsolete. Stamen 1. Ovary glabrous, 

 narrowly obovate; stigma short, sessile, feathery. Achene linear- 

 tapering, obtuse, free, slightly compressed laterally, not grooved; 

 embryo prominent. (In honor of F. Lamson-Scribner, Agrostologist 

 to the United States Department of Agriculture.) 



1. S. Bolanderi (Thurb.) Hackel. Scribneria. Stems 2 to 6 

 in. high, mostly simple, leafy; sheaths striate; ligule prominent, 

 1 to 2 lines long, acute; blades § to f-in. long, narrow, involute, 

 acute; spike f to 2 or 4J in. long, erect, slightly flexuous or curved, 

 purplish; spikelets about 3 lines long, usually exserted, scabrid. — 

 (Lepturus Bolanderi Thurb.) 



Found in dry gravelly soils on hillsides and roadsides from Lake 

 and Mendocino Cos. northward to Oregon, and in the Sierra Nevada: 

 Russian River Yalley, Long Valley and Round Valley, Mendocino 

 Co., 1866. Bolander; Yreka; Lakeport; Mariposa Co. Apr. -May. 

 Not recorded from within our limits, but to be looked for in Sonoma 

 Co., in the upper Russian River Valley. 



42. LOLIUM L. Ray-grass. 

 • Leaf-blades flat. Spike simple, solitary; rachis not jointed at the 

 nodes. Spikelets in notches excavated alternately on opposite sides 

 of the rachis, with the backs of one row of bractlets turned towards it, 

 3 to several-flowered, flattened laterally. Bracts 2 in the terminal 

 spikelet, only 1 (the outermost) or 1 and a rudiment in the lateral 

 spikelets. Rachilla jointed. Bractlet firm, 5-nerved. Palea ciliate. 

 Stamens 3. Scales 2, mostly as long as the ovary. Ovary smooth or 

 slightly downy at top; styles very short; stigmas feathery. (Lolium, 

 the name used by ancient Latin writers to designate Darnel, Lolium 

 temulentum, and perhaps other grain-field weeds. At once distin- 

 guished from all other genera of the tribe Hordeie by the solitary, 

 flat spikelets, arranged distichously with one edge towards the rachis.) 



Bract shorter than the much flattened spikelet 1. L. perenne. 



Bract equaling or exceeding the turgid spikelet 2. L. temulentum. 



