GRASS FAMILY 
197 
1. D. glomerata L. Orchard Grass. Culms in large tussocks, erect, 
6 to 12 dm. high; blades broadly linear; panicle 8 to 20 cm. long, the 
few stiff branches naked below, contracted after flowering; spikelets 5 to 
8 mm. long.—Cult.; escaped along roadsides and in waste places; native 
of Eur. 
10. LAMARCKIA Moench 
Annual with flat blades and oblong one-sided compact panicles, the 
crowded fascicles drooping, falling entire, the fertile spikelets hidden, 
except the awns, by the sterile ones. Spikelets of two kinds, in fascicles, 
the terminal one of each fascicle fertile, the others sterile. Fertile spike- 
let with 1 perfect floret, the rachilla produced beyond the floret, bearing 
a small awned empty lemma or reduced to an awn; glumes narrow, 
acuminate or short-awned, 1-nerved; lemma broader, raised on a slender 
stipe, scarcely nerved, bearing just below the apex a delicate straight awn. 
Sterile spikelets linear, 1 to 3 in each fascicle, consisting of 2 glumes 
similar to those of the fertile spikelet, and numerous distichously imbri¬ 
cate obtuse awnless empty lemmas. (Jean Baptiste Antoine Pierre Mon- 
net, Chevelier de La Marck, eminent French naturalist.) 
1. L. aurea Moench. Golden-top. Culms erect, 1 to 3.8 dm. high, 
ligule prominent, decurrent as a broad scarious margin; panicle shining, 
golden-yellow or purplish; fertile spikelet about 2 mm. long, the sterile 
4 to 8 mm. long.—Cult, and waste ground, common in S. Cal., rarer 
northw; nat. from Mediterranean region. 
• 11. MELICA L. 
Rather tall perennials, the base of the culm often swollen into a corm, 
with closed sheaths and usually flat blades. Panicle narrow or some¬ 
times open, usually simple, of relatively large spikelets. Spikelets 2 to 
several-flowered, the rachilla prolonged beyond the perfect florets and 
bearing at the apex two or three gradually smaller empty lemmas, con¬ 
volute together or the upper inclosed in the lower. Glumes somewhat un¬ 
equal, thin, scarious-margined, obtuse or acute, sometimes nearly as 
long as the lower floret, 3 to 5-nerved, the nerves usually prominent. 
Lemmas convex, several-nerved, membranous or rather firm, awnless or 
sometimes awned from between the teeth of the bifid apex. (Old Italian 
name for sorghum, from mel, honey.) 
1. M. imperfecta Trin. Culms erect, 3 to 9 dm. high; blades narrow, 
usually not over 2 mm. wide; panicle 1 to 3 dm. long, the unequal 
branches more or less fascicled.—Dry open woods and rocky hillsides, 
lower altitudes, frequent in cismontane Cal. 
12. LOLIUM L. Rye Grass 
Plants with flat blades and simple terminal flat spikes. Spikelets 
several-flowered, solitary, placed edgewise to the continuous rachis, one 
edge fitting to the alternate concavities. First glume (next to rachis) 
wanting (except on the terminal spikelet), the second glume outside, 
strongly 3 to 5-nerved, equaling or exceeding the second floret. Lemmas 
rounded on the back, 5 to 7-nerved, obtuse, acute, or awned. (Ancient 
Latin name.) 
Glume shorter than the spikelet; perennial. 
Lemmas awned.-.h L- multiflorum. 
