POACEAE 



6. Sporobolus cryptandrus (Torr.) A. Gray. 

 Sand Dropseed. Fig. 321. 



Agrostis cryptandrus Torr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. 1: 151. 1824. 

 Sporobolus cryptandrus A. Gray, Man. 576. 1848. 



Perennial; culms erect, usually branched at base, 50- 

 100 cm. tall ; sheaths smooth, densely pilose at the 

 throat; blades flat, glabrous beneath, scabrous^ above and 

 on the cartilaginous margin. 7-15 cm. long, 2-5 mm. wide, 

 slender-pointed; panicles terminal and axillary, hidden in 

 the sheaths or the former more or kss exserted, the ex- 

 serted portion spreading; spikelets about 2 mm. long; 

 glumes unequal, the first one-third as long as the second, 

 this and the lemma and palea about equal. 



Open dry ground in the Upper Sonoran Zone; Washington to 

 Maine, and south to Te.xas. j«ne-Sept. Type locality: "on the 

 Canadian River." 



7. Sporobolus contractus Hitchc. 

 Narrow-spiked Dropseed. Fig. 322. 



sporobolus cryptandrus strictus Scribn. Bull. Torrey Club 9: 103. 



1882. 

 Sporobolus strictus Merr. U. S. Dept. Agr. Div. Agrost. Circ. 32: 



6. 1901, not Franch. 1893. 

 Sporobolus contractus Hitchc. Am. Journ. Bot. 2: 303. 1915. 



Perennial ; culms erect, smooth, 60-120 cm. tall ; sheaths 

 smooth; villous at the throat and on the collar; ligule a 

 very short ciliate fringe; blades flat, 10-15 cm. long, 2-5 

 mm. wide, tapering to a fine involute point ; panicles 

 terminating the culms and the erect branches, narrow and 

 spikelike, the terminal somewhat interrupted, 15-25 cm. 

 long, all more or less concealed in the sheaths ; spikelets 

 about 2.5 mm. long; first glume one-third as long as the 

 spikelet ; second glume, lemma, and palea about equal, acute. 



Drv or sandy soil, west end of Salton Sea (Parish), eastward to 

 Utah "and Texas. October. Type locality: Camp Lowell, Arizona. 



Sporobolus elongatus R. Br. Prodr. FI. Nov. Holl. 170. 1810. 

 With spike-like panicle, and with both glumes much shorter than the 

 spikelet, has been collected on ballast near Portland (Suksdorf). 



Sporobolus flexuosus (Thurb.) Rydb., allied to 5. cryptandrus but 

 with flexuous panicle branches, has been collected in the southeastern 

 part of the ^lojave Desert (Parish). 



25. EPICAMPES Presl, Rel. Haenk. 1: 235. />/. 39. 1830. 



Spikelets l-flowered, the rachilla articulate above the glumes, not prolonged 

 the palea ; glumes about equal ; lemma equaling or longer than the glumes, 3-nerve 

 perennial grasses with open, narrow, or spikelike panicles. [Greek, curved.] 



Species 15, northern South America to Mexico. Type species, Epicampes strictus Presl 



behind 

 d. Tall 



1. Epicampes rigens Benth. 



Deer-grass. 



Fig. 



323. 



Epicampes riycns Benth. Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot. 19: 88. 1881. 



Culms erect, 1-1.5 meters tall; sheaths smooth or 

 slightly scabrous, covering the nodes; ligule truncate, 

 1-2 mm. long; blades scabrous, elongate, involute, 

 tapering into a long slender point; panicle spikelike, 

 slender, 30 cm. long or more; glumes 2-3 mm. long, 

 oblong, obtuse or somewhat erose, puberulent, convex, 

 scarcely keeled, striate; lemma slightly exceeding the 

 glumes, scaberulous, sparsely pilose at base, 3-nerved 

 toward the narrowed summit, awnless. 



Dry or open ground, hillsides, gullies and open forest, So- 

 noran Zone; southern California to New Mexico and Mexico. 

 July-Sept. Type locality: southern California. 



