284 



gle, 1 to 2 inches long, much branched, sometimes from the base, sometimes above, 

 the branchlets diverging; spikolets minute on long pedicels, about \ line 

 long, ixu-plish; empty glumes unociual, the upper one-half to two-thirds a« long 

 astlie lloral ones, tlie lower (me-halfto two thirds as long as the upper, both 

 obtuse; lloral glume smooth, obtuse; pnlet equaling its glume. 



Collected at liio Blanco by Dr. Edward Palmer in 1886 (No. 512); and by C 

 G. Pringle (No. 3853) near Guadaliijara in 1891. 

 Chloris longifolia (Fourn.) Vasey. (iiimnopoqon longifoUuHYo nm.Ma^ PI ii 144 

 (1880). Culms H to 2^ feet high, rather stout, leafy, ca-spitose, bearin'.^ at 

 the base numerous branching seed-bearing stolen-like panicles somctin^cs 6 

 inches Ion-; leaves 6 to 10 inches long, flat, 3 to 4 lines wide, scabrous on the 

 margins ami ui)])er surface, longer than the internodes, the lower ligules ciliate 

 to pilose; apical panicle 5 to 8 inches long, of 5 to 10 racemose spikes erect at 

 first, then spreading, usually in threes below, the others irregularly scattered 

 narrow and spikclct-beariug to the base; si)ikc]ets somewhat imbricnted above' 

 becoming more distant, but apj.roximate below, one-sided, wiih one perfect and 

 one sterile floret; emj.ty glumes unequal, the lower minute, subobtuse, the upper 

 one less than 1 line long, ovate, acute or acuminate, purplish, scarious-margined- 

 floral gluiiH^ linear, 2^ t<. 3 linos long, with a distinct hairy callus at tlie base, and 

 finely scabrous on the midnerveuear tlie apex, otlu^rwise smooth, witli two short 

 teeth at the apex, and between the teeth a scabrous awn 3 to 4 lines long; palet 

 as long as its .irlume, terminating in 2 slender acute teeth; imperfect floret pedi- 

 cellate, 4 to 1 line long, linear, with an awn about 2 lines long; grain linear- 

 oblong, th." liilnni occupying one third its length. The panicles at the base of 

 tlie culm iwv. nnnierous, from 2 to 6 inches long, and irrej^nilarly branched These 

 seem t.. rnn on or near the surface of the ground, an.l here and there ^ive rise 

 to lertile liorets, which are lai-orthau those in the aerial panicle, and with a 

 larger, ronndcn- orniu; the fertile florets about 3 lines long, oblong or oval with 

 an abrupt point; empty glomes nearly equal, ovate, about 2 lines lon<-, many- 

 nerved; floral ghnne ova), thick ish, acute, nearly as long as its palet; -"^in ob- 

 long. abru].tly pointed, about 2 lines long, much longer and heavier than the 

 grams of the panicle, the hilum occupying one-half its length. I have not ob- 

 served any stamens in the florets of the stolons. 



Collected at Ynmla, Sinaloa, by Dr. EdwardPalmer, in September, 1891 (No I7fi3) 

 I have no doubt that this r(iUKirkable grass should be ])laced in the ---onus Chloris 

 It IS unusual in tlieracemosedispositionof its spikes, thevcommonlv beinc-verti- 

 cillate or di-itat<* at the stunmit of the peduncle, but in CMoHs r^^rheUlara Nntt 

 there is a form with tw.. or three verticillate somewhat distant whorls of s]dkc8 

 Fournior, in his account of Mexican grasses, gives 6 species of CMoris all .lif- 

 fereut from this. Ho, however, gives two species of Gymnopogoiu one of which 

 from the description given may be our grass, inasmuch as he remarks that the 

 empty glumes m the species he des.u'ibes are smaHcr than in the type of the 

 genus. I have not seen any specimens of the species he describes, but our pluit 

 18 excluded from (Uimnopo,ion by tlio spikes bein- re-nlarly floriferous throu<rh- 

 out, instead of bein- interrui)tedly floriferous. and also in the greater develop- 

 ment of the second floret. There is no mention in any account of the species 

 of Chhms, nor of the tribe Chloridecv, of the floriferous stolons at the base of 

 the culm. The only analogous case that I know of is that of Amphicarpum a 

 grass of the pine barrens of Now Jersey and extending to Florida, in which 

 there are similar but less branching runners, bearing fertile florets, those of 

 the upper pani.de being all sterile, while our plant has perfect seeds on the 

 upper panicle as well as on the lower panicles. 



EXPI.ANAT10N or PLATK xix.-Ha.o of plant. With orcopinff panicle of cleistogamou. florets ■ 

 J^ bract a,ul .,Mk,.l..t Tn:,n,niied tl.r^c thn.s: 7?, .Mnpty glumes; C, floral glume, ventral view^ 

 J^, j.Ml.t, v..,ara y.ow; /; .rain: a. panid. .at the apex of the culm, sligl.tlv «mallerthan n.-.t: 



Zf «"^, ;; '" ."' '" '""' ""'"•^' '''^""'"'' "' ^'^*=°"'^ "'""'y Kl'^"^''^ d. fion-ts, Bide view, 



laaKiuHcd U.rec tnuos ; «, floral glume, dorsal view; /, palet; g, imperfect floret. 



