20 2 
GRAMINEAE 
Spikelets 1-flowered, compressed, the rachilla disarticulating above the 
glumes, produced beyond the palea as a short bristle, hairy above; 
glumes about equal, chartaceous; lemma similar to and slightly shorter 
than the glumes, the callus bearing a tuft of short hairs; palea nearly as 
long as the lemma. (Greek ammos, sand, and philein, to love.) 
1. A. arenaria (L.) Link. Beach Grass. Culms stout, 6 to 9 dm. 
high; panicle 10 to 30 cm. long; spikelets 1 to 2 cm. long.—Introd. on 
the Pacific Coast where it has been used as a sandbinder on seacoast 
sand-dunes; native of Eur. 
21. AGROSTIS L. Bent Grass 
Plants with glabrous culms and scabrous blades. Panicles of small 
spikelets. Rachilla disarticulating above the glumes, usually not pro¬ 
longed. Glumes equal or nearly so, acute, acuminate, or sometimes awn- 
pointed, carinate. Lemma obtuse, usually shorter and thinner in texture 
than the glumes, awnless or dorsally awned, often hairy on the callus. 
Palea usually shorter than the lemma, 2-nerved in only a few species, 
usually small and nerveless or obsolete. (Ancient Greek name of a forage 
grass, from agros, a field.) 
Palea evident, 2-nerved, to as long as lemma; plants with rhizomes. 
1. A. palustris. 
Palea minute, nerveless ; plants without rhizomes or with very short ones. 
2. A. exarata. 
1. A. palustris Huds. Redtop. Culms erect or decumbent and root¬ 
ing at base, 3 to 9 dm. high; panicle pyramidal, loose but not diffuse, 5 to 
30 cm. long, the lower branches in whorls; lemma a little shorter than the 
glumes, obtuse, rarely awned on back.—Cult, as a meadow grass, fre¬ 
quently escaped along roadsides and in waste places; introd. from Eur. 
(A. alba of authors.) 
2. A. exarata Trin. Culms erect, 3 to 12 dm. high, or often depauper¬ 
ate; panicle contracted and spike-like or loose and somewhat spreading, 
the branches densely flowered; lemma 2 mm. long, awnless, or rarely 
with a short prickle on the back.—Moist to rather dry open ground, 
throughout the state from the seacoast to middle altitudes in the mts. 
22. PHLEUM L. 
Annuals or perennials, with erect culms, flat blades, and dense spike¬ 
like panicles. Spikelets laterally compressed, disarticulating above the 
glumes. Glumes equal, membranous, keeled. Lemma shorter than the 
glumes, hyaline, broadly truncate, 3 to 5-nerved. Palea narrow, nearly as 
long as the lemma. (Greek phleos, a kind of reed.) 
1. P. pratense L. Timothy. Culms 6 to 12 dm. high, from a swollen 
or bulb-like base; panicles 3 to 15 cm. long.—Cult.; also escaped in fields 
and waste places; native of Eur. 
23. STIPA L. Porcupine Grass. Spear Grass 
Perennials, with usually convolute blades and narrow panicles. Spike¬ 
lets disarticulating above the glumes, the articulation oblique, leaving a 
bearded, sharp-pointed callus attached to the base of the floret. Glumes 
membranous, often papery, acute or acuminate, usually long and narrow. 
Lemma narrow, terete, firm or indurate, strongly convolute, terminating 
in a bent and twisted prominent persistent awn. Palea inclosed in the 
