410 MISC. PUBLICATION 200, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



1. Blepharoneuron tricholepis (Torr.) Nash. Hairy dropseed. 



(Fig. 854.) Culms erect, densely- 

 tufted, slender, 20 to 60 cm tall; 

 leaves crowded on the innovations, 

 mostly less than half as long as 

 the culm, the slender blades flat, 

 soon becoming involute, often 

 flexuous; panicle grayish, elliptic, 

 5 to 20 cm long, 2 to 5 cm wide, 

 many-flowered, the branches as- 

 cending, the pedicels capillary, 

 flexuous; spikelets 2.5 to 3 mm 

 long; glumes obtuse or subacute, 

 a little shorter than the abruptly 

 pointed lemma; palea slightly ex- 

 ceeding the lemma. Ql — Rocky 

 slopes and dry open woods, 2,000 to 

 3,500 m, Colorado to Utah, south 

 to Texas, Arizona, and Mexico (fig. 

 855). Palatable and sufficiently 

 abundant in places to be of im- 

 portance. 



78. CRYPSIS Ait. 



Spikelets 1 -flowered, disarticu- 

 lating below the glumes; glumes 

 about equal, narrow, acute; lem- 

 ma broad, thin, 1-nerved; palea 

 similar to the lemma, about as 

 long, splitting between the nerves; 



Figure 854.— Blepharoneuron tricholepis. Plant, X H; glumes and floret, X 10. (Shear 1182, Colo.) 



fruit readily falling from the lemma and palea, the seed free from the 



