204 
GRAMINEAE 
compressed, pubescent on the keel, firm, 3-nerved, the lateral nerves 
close to the margins. (Greek kuon, a dog, and odous, tooth.) 
1. C. dactylon (L.) Pers. Bermuda Grass. Devil Grass. Culms 
flattened, wiry, glabrous; ligule a conspicuous ring of white hairs; spikes 
4 to 6, 2.5 to 6 cm. long; spikelets imbricate, 2 mm. long.—Moist valley 
fields and along irrigating ditches; native of warmer parts of Old World. 
Under the name Bermuda Grass it is by some farmers regarded as good 
pasturage. Other farmers, watching its rapid invasion of their culti¬ 
vated fields, liken it to a predatory corporation that sucks all their sub¬ 
stance and, therefore, call it Devil Grass. 
26. SPARTINA Schreb. 
Stout erect tall perennials, with extensively creeping firm scaly rhi¬ 
zomes, long tough blades, and two to many appressed or sometimes spread¬ 
ing spikes racemose on the main axis. Spikelets 1-flowered, much flat¬ 
tened laterally, sessile and usually closely imbricate, disarticulating be¬ 
low the glumes, the rachilla not produced beyond the floret. Glumes 
keeled, 1-nerved, acute or short-awned, the first shorter, the second often 
exceeding the lemma. Lemma firm, keeled, the lateral nerves obscure, 
narrowed to a rather obtuse point. Palea keeled and flattened, the keel 
between or at one side of the nerves. (Greek spartion, a cord, referring 
to the tough leaves.) 
1. S. foliosa Trim Blades 8 to 12 mm. broad at the flat base, gradu¬ 
ally narrowed to a long involute tip, smooth; inflorescence dense, spike¬ 
like; spikes numerous, close-appressed; glumes ciliate on keel; lemma 
hispidulous on sides, smooth on keel; palea longer than lemma.—Salt 
marshes and tidal flats along the coast, San Francisco Bay to San Diego. 
Useful in reclaiming marshland. 
27. PHALARIS L. 
Erect plants with flat blades and .spike-like panicles. Spikelets laterally 
compressed, with 1 perfect floret and 2 reduced sterile lemmas, usually 
in dense spike-like panicles. Glumes equal, boat-shaped, often winged 
on the keel. Sterile lemmas reduced to 2 small scales (rarely only 1). 
Fertile lemma coriaceous, shorter than the glumes, inclosing the palea. 
(Ancient Greek name for some grass.) 
Spikelets in groups of 7, 1 fertile surrounded by 6 sterile; keel of the glumes 
winged above, the wing extending into a tooth ; glumes of the 4 outer 
sterile spikelets in lower part of panicle deformed into knobs; panicle 
dense, narrowed at base, often enclosed at base in the uppermost en¬ 
larged sheath.....1. P. paradoxa. 
Spikelets single, all alike ; glumes broadly winged on the keel above, more or 
less toothed; panicle ovate or short-oblong.2. P. minor. 
1. P. paradoxa L. Gnawed Canary Grass. Annual; culms tufted, 
more or less spreading at base, 3 to 6 dm. high; spikelets falling in 
groups of 7, the central fertile, nearly sessile, the others sterile, slender- 
pediceled; fertile lemma smooth, shining, 3 mm. long, the sterile lemmas 
obsolete.—Grain fields, often abundant and widely distributed in the state; 
nat. from the Old World. Var. praemorsa (Lam.) Coss. & Dur. Sterile 
spikelets short-pediceled, the 4 outer much reduced, the apex deformed 
into knobs or variously incurved; fertile spikelet somewhat indurate, 
several-nerved at base, acuminate, the wing fin-like.—Waste places, San 
