GRASS FAMILY. 



77 



Spikes stout, cylindrical, usually dense. Spikelets 2 to (5 (sometimes 

 only 1 above) at each node of the more or less flattened and notched 

 rachis, placed sidewise to the rachis, usually sessile, 2 to 7 (rarely 

 only l)-flowered. Bracts persistent, placed side by side in front of 

 each spikelet so that those at a node together resemble an involucre, 

 rarely divided into several awns (section Sitanion), firm, 1 to 5- 

 nerved, linear or narrowly lanceolate-subulate. Raehilla jointed 

 below the bractlets, terminating in a perfect or staminate flower or an 

 empty bractlet. Bractlets usually coriaceous, rounded on the back. 

 Palea 2-keeled. Scales large, usually ciliate. Stamens 3; anthers 

 large. Ovary hairy; stigmas sessile or nearly so, distant. Achene 

 oblong, hairy at the apex, grooved on the inside, adherent to the 

 bractlet and palea. (Greek elunios, a kind of grain.) 



Bractlet cuspidate or awn-pointed, but not long-awned. 

 Spikelets % to 1 in. long; lowest bractlet 7 t<> lu lines long; Ligule about % line 



long; bti ut grass of maritime dunes and andy beaches. 1. E. arenarius. 

 Spikeiets ]/ 2 X,o% in. long; lowest bractlet 5 to 6 lines long. 

 Ligule about 1 line long; spike stout, usually den-e, contracted: spikelets 



many; stout grass oi moist plaees among the hills. . . 2. E.condensatus. 

 Ligule about l / 3 lii e long; spike slender; spikelets few; plant usually 

 glaucous with a bluish bloom; slender grass of bottom lands in the 



wanner valleys 3. E. triticoides. 



Bractlet with an awn mostly equaling or longer than itself. 

 Bracts entiie. narrowly lanceolate-subulate, n:ostly acuminate or awn- 

 pointed but not long-awned. 

 Rootstock stoloniferous. 

 Awns erect; sheaths glabrous or retrorsely pubescent. 

 Ligule less than % line long, regularly truncate. 



Sheaths densely re ror>ely pubescent 4. E. pubescens. 



Sheaths smooih or scabrid 5. E. glaucus. 



Liguleabout 1 line long, rounded ; bractlet hispidulous. 6. E. hinpidulus. 

 Awns very diver- ent when dry, straight and erect when moistened: lower 



sheaths densely antrorscly pubescent I.E. divergens. 



Rootstock not stoloniferous; stems leafy and tufted. ... 8. E. angustifolius. 

 Bracts divided into long, slender awns which surround the spikelets as with 

 an involucre 9. E. Sitanion. 



1. E. arenarius L. Rancheria-grass. Glaucous; rootstock 

 stout, widely creeping, stoloniferous; stems stout, erect, 3 to 6 ft. high; 

 sheaths smooth, channeled; ligule a narrow truncate ring; blades 13 

 to 18 in. long, 4 to 6 lines wide, flat or with more or less convolute 

 margins below, attenuate, rigid, auricled at the base, scabrous above, 

 smooth below; spike 6 to 12 in. long, dense, erect; rachis broadly 

 winged, pubescent and ciliate; spikelets large, in pairs or threes, 

 imbricate, mostly appressed, f to 1 in. long, about 6-flowered; bracts 

 sub-equal, 7 to 12 lines long, rather shorter than the nearest bractlet, 

 lanceolate-acuminate, 3 to 5-nerved, scabrous, sparingly ciliate with 

 long hairs on the mid-nerve especially above; bractlet about 9 lines 

 long including the long point, 1J lines wide, 8 to 9-nerved, glabrous 

 or scabrid or sparingly pubescent; palea about G lines long, ciliate on 

 the keels; anthers 3 lines long 



Common on maritime sand dunes, sandy beaches, and coast bluffs: 

 Clin House and South Beach, San Francisco; Alameda Marshes; Bay 

 Farm Island; West Berkeley; cliffs at mouth of Bear Valley; Point 

 Reyes. July-Aug. 



