GRASS FAMILY 
189 
Some of the most famous plants in the family, in addition to those 
described in the following pages are: Bamboo (Bambusa vulgaris 
Wendl.), becoming in China and Japan a timber tree; Sugar Cane (Sac- 
charum officinarum L.), which is sugar-producing; Esparto (Stipa 
tenacissima L. and Lygeum spartum L.), used in paper-making; Galleta 
(Hilaria rigida Benth.), a remarkable forage plant of the Mohave 
Desert; and Sleepy Grass (Stipa vaseyi Scribn.) of New Mexico, which 
has narcotic qualities. 
Subfamily 1. Poatae 
Spikelets 1 to many-flowered, the reduced florets, if any, above the per¬ 
fect florets (except in Phalarideae) ; articulation usually above the 
glumes; spikelets usually more or less laterally compressed. 
Spikelets without sterile lemmas below the perfect floret (or these rarely present 
and like the fertile ones). 
Spikelets pedicellate in open or contracted, sometimes spike-like panicles. 
Spikelets 2 to many-flowered. 
Glumes shorter than the first floret (except in Dissanthelium with 
long rachilla joints) ; lemmas awnless or awned from the 
tip or from a bifid apex.— Festuceae (Fescue Tribe). 
Tall stout reeds (3 to 6 m. high), with large plume-like panicles; 
spikelets several-flowered. 
Lemmas hairy; rachilla naked. 7. Arundo. 
Lemmas naked; rachilla hairy.8. Phragmites. 
Low or rather tall grasses (1 dm. to 1.5 dm. high). 
Plants dioecious, erect from creeping rhizomes, perennial; 
spikelets in a narrow simple exserted panicle. 
6. Distichlis. 
Plants not dioecious. 
Spikelets of 2 forms, sterile and fertile intermixed; 
panicle dense, somewhat one-sided. 
10. Lamarckia. 
Spikelets all alike in the same inflorescence. 
Lemmas strongly 3-nerved, longer than the glumes.. 
5. Eragrostis. 
Lemmas 5 to many-nerved, the nerves sometimes 
obscure. 
Lemmas as broad as long, the margins out¬ 
spread ; florets closely imbricate, hori¬ 
zontally spreading. 4. Briza. 
Lemmas longer than broad, the margins clasp¬ 
ing the palea; florets not horizontally 
spreading. 
Glumes not papery. 
Spikelets strongly compressed, crowded 
in 1-sided clusters at the ends 
of the stiff naked panicle 
branches.9. Dactylis. 
Spikelets not strongly compressed, not 
crowded in 1-sided clusters. 
Lemmas minutely bifid at 
apex, with an awn in the 
notch or rarely awnless, 
convex or keeled on the 
back ; spikelets large. 
1. Bromus. 
Lemmas not notched at apex (or 
very rarely). 
