50 



erect, 6 to 10 dm. high, smooth, terete; nodes smooth; sheaths crowded, longer 

 than the internodes, smooth or rough-hirsute, loose; ligule less than 1 mm. long, 

 entire; leaf-blades numerous, 1.5 to 3 dm. long, 7 to 10 mm. wide, flat or par- 

 tially involute, erect or ascending, somewhat scabrous below, scabrous on the 

 margins and scabrous and sometimes sparsely hirsute above; spike robust, erect or 

 nodding, 1 to 1.5 dm. long, often glaucous; rachis thick, somewhat compressed, 

 smooth or ciliate, scabrous on the margins. Spikelets 2 to 3 at each node, 3 or 5 

 flowered; empty glumes thickened, coriaceous and somewhat curved at the 

 base, strongly 3 to 5 nerved, scabrous on the nerves and often ciliate-scabrous 

 on the margins, 11 to 15 mm. long, or with the straight, scabrous awn 3 to 3.5 

 cm.; flowering glumes on a short stipe, 9 to 12 mm. long, minutely scabrous, 

 tipped with a straight, slender, scabrous awn 2 to 3 cm. long. Palea 8 to 10 mm. 

 long, scabrous on the keels, truncate or minutely bidentate. 



This species is more closely allied to E. australis, of which it is a glabrous-flowered 

 counterpart, than to E. canadenm, from which it is distinguished by the heavier 

 spikes, thickened empty glumes, and merely scabrous flowering glumes, while 

 these first two characters serve to separate it from E. hmchystachyg. It seems 

 unfortunate that this plant should have received the name E. canadenm glabri- 

 ftorus when E. brachystachys really stands in that relationship to E. canadensis. 



Type specimen collected in low, miry, even saltish places at Pointe-a-la-Hache, Lou- 

 isiana, by A. B. Langlois, No. 81, June, 1885. 



General distribution— Low, rich woods or thickets from Pennsylvania and Georgia 

 to Tennessee and New Mexico. 



Specimens -exx^u^-ej).— Pennsylvania: Easton, T. C. Porter, August 13, 1897; Phila- 

 delphia, 47 C. E. Smith, August. District of Columbia: Tennallytown. Mary- 

 land: Glen Echo, 15 T. H. Kearney, jr., August, 1894; Hamilton Hill, 701 C. R. 

 Ball, July, 1900. Virginia: Norfolk, 293 T. H. Kearney, jr., August, 1895; Ports- 

 mouth, 36, 37 Noyes, 1895. North Carolina: Columbus, E. C. Townsend, 1897. 

 South Carolina: Florence, 686 C. R. Ball, August, 1900. Georgia: Banks of the 

 Coosa, mountains of Georgia, 23 A. W. Chapman, 1883. Tennessee: Cowan, 23 A. 

 Euth, July, 1898. Alabama: Be Kalb County, 6 H. Eggert, June, 1897; Nesheka, 

 9 G. W. Carver, July, 1897. Louisiana: Arcadia, 84 C. R. Ball, August, 1898; 

 Pointe-u-la-Hache, 81 A. B. Langlois (type). Texas: Ennis, J. G. Smith, July, 

 1898; no locality, G. C. Nealley, 1886; F. W. Thurow, 1889. New Mexico: 2073 

 C. Wright, 1851-52. 



