858 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
cleft and bearing 2 short awns; palet and upper floret smooth; behind the palet of 
the upper floret, a short awn, 1 mm, long, the prolongation of the rachilla; caryopsis 
not seen. (Fiaure 21.) 
The species has not often been collected. In the U. S. National Herbarium, Prin- 
gle 2559, 11242, 5398, and Palmer 200, all from the State of Jalisco, Mexico, are repre- 
sentative. Palmer has also collected it near Durango, Mexico. Rose’s no. 1621, 
Sinaloa, and Rose & Hough 4775, Jalisco, are typical. 
Fig. 22.— Cathestecum prostratum. a, Sheath with inflorescence protruding, showing two 
spikes, one with 3 spikelets, the other with the lower pair of spikelets aborted; b, up- 
permost spikelet; c, d, lemma and palet of first floret; c, f, lemma and palet of second 
floret; 7, h, lemma and palet of third floret; i, lemma of fourth floret; j, one of lower 
pair of spikelets; k, 7, lemma and palet of first floret; m, n, lemma and palet of second 
floret. a, Scale 5; b-n, scale 7.5. Fr m type specimen. 
CATHESTECUM Presl. 
Cathestecum Presl, Rel. Haenk. 1: 294. pl. 42. 1830. Based upon C. prostratum. 
Bentham and Hooker@ write the name ‘‘Cathestechum.”’ 
Inflorescence racemose, with 4 to many spikes, each consisting of 3 approximate 
spikelets, the first glume of each spikelet, or at least of the terminal one, more or less 
reduced, commonly to a nerveless fimbriate scale, the lemmas of the upper florets 
showing a tendency toward branching, or sometimes an actual multiplication of 
nerves and awns by division of the typical lateral nerves. 
@Gen. Pl. 3: 1122. 1883. 
