144 Pipei — New and Interesting Amerinm Grasses. 



Epicampes macrotis sp. nov. 



A stout tufted grass about 1 meter high, with flat very sca])rous leaves, 

 very long firm auricles, and an erect rather loose narrow panicle. Culms 

 terete, smooth, 80 to 100 cm. high. Leaves numerous, closely investing 

 the base of the culm ; sheaths smooth, striate, keeled, about 10 mm. broad, 

 the margins prolonged into narrow auricles 2 to 4 cm. long; ligule very 

 thin, scarious, laciniate ; blades flat, strongly keeled, striate, retrorsely 

 scabrous on the upper surface, margins and keel, 4 to 6 mm. wide, 

 somewhat shorter than the culms. Panicle 30 to 35 cm. long, narrow, 

 erect; rays irregularly fascicled, scabrous, erect, the longest 5 to 6 cm. long. 

 Spikelets 3 to 3.5 mm. long; empty glumes obtuse, not keeled, subequal, 

 shorter than the floret ; flowering glume lanceolate, acute, three-nerved, 

 smooth ; palet obtuse, nearly as long as the flowering glume. 



Collected by J. N. Rose in the Sierra Madre, Zacatecas, Mexico, No. 3528 

 August 7, 1897 (Type). 



The species should be readily distinguished by its crowded sheatlis and 

 very long auricles. 



Epicampes crassiculmis sp. nov. 



A very stout and tall, pale, very smooth si)ecies with rather broad folded 

 leaves and a large purplish panicle with ascending branches. Culms 1 to 

 2 m. high, 1 cm. or more thick, terete, very smooth, about six-jointed, 

 from stout rootstocks. Sheaths smooth and polished, thick and firm, 

 sparsely hairy in the throat, the lowest 70 cm. long, shorter than the joint ; 

 ligule obsolete; blades thick and rigid, folded, smooth bene;ith, striate 

 above, scabrous on the margins, 8 to 10cm. wide, apparently abont a meter 

 long. Panicle rather dense, 30 to 45 cm. long, 4 to 6 cm. wide ; rays fasci- 

 culate, verticillate, erect or ascending, somewhat scabrous, the longest 15 

 cm. long. Spikelets 3 mm. long; empty glumes smooth, carinate, lance- 

 olate, acute, the upper 2 mm. long, the lower i to j as long ; flowering 

 glume one-nerved, acute, smooth, awnless, 2.5 to 3 mm. long ; palet slightly 

 shorter; a second rudimentary floret is often present. 



Collected by Dr. E. Palmer, No. 414, in alkali soil at Alamos, Sonora, 

 Mexico, in 1891 (Type). 



Melica montezumae sp. nov. 



A palegreen, loosely tufted, erect perennial 50 to 60 cm. high, with loose, 

 at length spreading panicles bearing silvery spikelets. Culms with 6 to 7 

 nodes, only the upper part naked, this striate scabrous. Leaves about 7, 

 the lower 2 or 3 reduced to sheaths ; sheaths striate, smooth, exceeding the 

 internodes ; ligules scarious, lacerate, adnate, 5 to 10 nun. long; blades 

 linear, rather rigid, erect or ascending, flat or loosely involute, 10 to 20 

 nerved, scabrous on both sides, especially beneath, mucronate at the 

 naviculate apex, 10 to 20 cm. long, 2 to 3 mm. wide. Panicle 10 to 18 cm. 

 long, erect; rays smooth, in pairs or sometimes in threes, unequal, at first 

 erect, at length divaricate or even reflexed, the longer 5 to 6 cm. long, 

 sparingly branched and flowering above the middle, the shorter ones 



