222 MISC. PUBLICATION 200, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTUKE 



subtending leaves. Type species, Blepharidachne kingii. Name 

 from Greek blepharis (blepharid-), eyelash, and achne, chaff, alluding 

 to the ciliate lemma. 



Glumes a little longer than the florets, acuminate; foliage seaberulous. 



1. B. KINGII. 



Glumes a little shorter than the florets, subacute; foliage densely grayish harsh- 

 puberulent 2. B. bigelovii. 



1. Blepharidachne kingii (S. Wats.) Hack. (Fig. 433.) Low 

 tufted perennial with the aspect of Triodia pulchella, but not rooting 

 at upper nodes; culms mostly less than 10 cm tall; sheaths with 

 broad hyaline margins; blades less than 1 mm wide, involute, curved, 

 sharp-pointed, 1 to 3 cm long; panicles subcapitate, pale or purplish, 

 1 to 2 cm long, exceeded by the upper blades; spikelets flabellate; 

 glumes about 8 mm long, acuminate, exceeding the florets; sterile 

 lemmas about 6 mm long, all the lemmas about the same height, 

 long-ciliate on the margins, pilose at the base and on the callus, 

 cleft nearly to the middle, the lateral lobes narrow, obtuse, the 

 nerve at one margin, awn-tipped, the central lobe consisting of the 



Figure 433.— Blepharidachne kingii. Plant, X 1; spikelet and perfect floret, X 5. (Jones 4094, Nev.) 



awn, ciliate below, somewhat exceeding the lateral ones; palea much 

 narrower and somewhat shorter than the lemma; fertile lemma 

 similar to the sterile ones, the palea broad and as long as the lemma; 

 upper sterile lemma on a rachilla joint about 3 mm long, reduced to 

 3 plumose awns; grain compressed, 2 mm long. Ql — Deserts, 

 Nevada and California (Death Valley), apparently rather rare. 



2. Blepharidachne bigelovii (S. Wats.) Hack. (Fig. 434.) Peren- 

 nial; culms stiff, 10 to 20 cm long, the culms and foliage harsh- 

 puberulent; sheaths broad, firm; blades coarser than in B. kingii; 

 panicles dense, oblong, 1 to 3 cm long, the blades not exceeding the 

 panicle; glumes about 6 mm long, subacute, shorter than the florets; 

 sterile lemmas ciliate and awned as in B. kingii, cleft about 1 mm. 

 % — Known only from rocky hills, Frontera, above El Paso, Tex. 



