GRASS FAMILY 



109 



1. Hilaria rigida (Thurb.) Benth. 



Galleta. 



Fig. 222. 



Pleiirafhis rigida TInirb. in S. Wats. Bot. Calif. 2: 293. 1880. 

 Hilaria rigida Benth.; Scribn. Bull. Torrey Club 9: Zi, 86. 

 1882. 



Culms numerous, rigid, felty-pubescent, glabrate 

 and scabrous above, 50-100 cm. tall ; leaves felty or 

 glabrous, usually woolly at the top of the sheath ; 

 blades spreading, 2-5 cm. long, or longer on sterile 

 shoots, 2-4 mm. wide, more or less involute, acutnin- 

 ate into a rigid coriaceous point; spikelets about 8 

 mm. long; glumes of central spikelet broadened up- 

 ward from a narrow base, wooUy-ciliate, several- 

 awned from the tip, a stronger dorsal awn from about 

 the middle ; lemma 3-nerved, enclosing the palea and 

 a rudimentary second floret, the nerves villous on 

 the back, extending into delicate awns between the 

 ciliate lobes of the apex; lateral spikelets similar, 

 narrower, the glumes less awned at the tip, the second 

 floret similar to the first. 



Mojave and Colorado Deserts, Lower Sonoran Zone; east 

 to Arizona and south into Sonora. Feb.-June. Type locality: 

 southern California. 



2. Hilaria jamesii (Torr.) Benth. 

 James' Galleta. Fig. 223. 



Ann. Lye. N. Y. 1: 



148. pi. 10. 

 1881. 



Plcnraphis jamesii Terr. 



1824. 

 Hilaria jamesii Benth. Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot. 19: 62. 



Culms glabrous, the nodes villous ; sheaths glab- 

 rous or slightly scabrous, sparingly villous around 

 the short membranaceous ligule ; blades mostly 2-5 

 cm. long, 2-4 mm. wide, rigid, soon involute, the 

 upper reduced; spikelets 6-8 mm. long, long-villous 

 at base ; glumes of central spikelet pubescent, 

 cuneate, 2-lobed, the lobes 2- or 3-awned, the central 

 nerve between, extending from below the middle 

 into an awn somewhat longer than the others, the 

 awns all minutely plumose ; lemma erose at apex, 

 glabrous, 3-nerved, the nerves parallel, the central 

 extending into a short awn ; glumes of lateral 

 spikelets narrow, pubescent, the first unsyinmetrical. 

 5-nerved, the second nerve on one side extending 

 into a dorsal awn from below the middle, the apex 

 unequally 2-lobed, the sinus extending down about 

 half-way to the point of departure of the awn, the 

 lobes minutely ciliate; second glume 5-nerved, awn- 

 less, entire, ciliate, conduplicate around the floret ; 

 lemma as in fertile spikelet ; stamens 2.- 



Deserts of Inyo County, Lower Sonoran Zone; east to 

 Wyoming and Texas. May. Type locality: the sources of 

 the Canadian River. 



5. SYNTHERISMA Walt. Fl. Carol. 76. 1788. 



[DiGiTARiA Hall, Hist. Stirp. Helv. 2: 244. 1768, not Adans. 1763, nor Heist. 1759.] 



Spikelets solitary or in twos or threes. sul)sessile or short-pediceled, alternate in 2 rows 

 on one side of a 3-angled winged or wingless rachis ; spikelets lanceolate or elliptic, plano- 

 convex; first glume minute or wanting; second glume equaling the sterile lemma or 

 shorter ; fertile lemma cartilaginous, the hyaline margins pale. Annual or sometimes 

 perennial erect or prostrate grasses, the slender racemes digitate or aggregate at the sum 

 mil of the culms. [Greek, crop-making.] 



Species about 75 in the warmer parts of the world. Type species, Syntherisma praeco.v Walt. 



