MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



205 



29. SCHIZACHNE Hack. 



Spikelets several-flowered, disarticulating above the glumes and 

 between the florets, the rachilla glabrous; glumes unequal, 3- and 5- 

 nerved ; lemmas lanceolate, strongly 7-nerved, long-pilose on the callus, 

 awned from j ust below the teeth of the prominently bifid apex ; palea with 

 softly pubescent, thickened submarginal keels, the 

 hairs longer toward the summit. Rather tall peren- 

 nial with simple culms and open rather few-flowered 

 panicles. Type species, Schizachne jauriei Hack. 

 (S. purpurascens). Name from Greek schizein, to 

 split, and achne, chaff, alluding to the bifid lemma. 

 1. Schizachne purpurascens (Torr.) Swallen. 



False melic. (Fig. 4 0.) 



Culms erect from a loosely 



tufted decumbent base, 50 to 



100 cm tall; sheaths closed; 



blades flat, narrowed at the 



base, 1 to 5 mm wide; panicle 



about 10 cm long, the branches 



single or in pairs, more or less 



drooping, bearing 1 or 2 spike- 

 lets; spikelets 2 to 2.5 cm long; 



glumes purplish, less than half 



as long as the spikelet; lem- 

 mas about 1 cm long, the awn 



as long as the lemma or longer. 



% (Melica striata Hitchc; 



M. purpurascens Hitchc; 



Avena torreyi Nash.) — Rocky 



woods, Newfoundland to 



southern Alaska, south to 



Pennsylvania, Kentucky, 



South Dakota, and Montana, 



and in the mountains from 



British Columbia to New 



Mexico (fig. 401); Siberia^and 



Japan. 



30. VASEYOCHLOA 

 Hitchc. 



I 



Figure 398.— Melica frv- 



Spikelets subterete or ZZ x^m^] 

 slightly compressed, several- JohMton, and Harwood 

 flowered, the rachilla disar- 

 ticulating above the glumes and between the 



FiavRvm.-MdieacaUfamica. 5 orets ' the joints very short; glumes rather 

 Plant, xi; floret, x 5. (Uoff- firm, unequal, much shorter than the lemmas, 



man 37, Calif.) ^ fipst 3 _ ^ 5 _ nervedj the second 7. to g_ 



nerved; lemmas rounded on the back, firm, closely imbricate, 7- to 

 9-nerved, broad, narrowed to an obtuse entire apex, and with a 

 stipelike hairy callus, pubescent on the lower part of the back and 

 margins; palea shorter than the lemma, splitting at maturity, the 



