42 POACEAE. 



29. MELICA L. Melic-grass. 



Perennial often tufted grasses with usually flat leaves 

 and contracted or open panicles. Spikelets 1-several- 

 flowered, often secund. The rachilla extended beyond 

 the flowers and generally bearing 2-3 empty club-shaped 

 or hooded glumes, convolute around each other. Two 

 outer glumes empty, membranous, 3-5-nerved; flowering 

 glumes larger, rounded on the back, 7- 13-nerved, some- 

 times bearing an awn, the margins more or less scarious. 

 Palea broad, shorter than the glume, 2-keeled. Sta- 

 mens 3. Styles distinct. Grain free, enclosed in the 

 palea and glume. 



1, M. imperfecta Trin. Culms slender, somewhat tufted, 3-10 

 dm. high; sheaths exceeding the internodes; blades 6-7, flat or be- 

 coming involute, usually glabrous or more or less scabrous, 15-20 

 cm. long, about 2 mm. wide; panicle 2-3 dm. long, its branches in 

 remote clusters, unequal, the longer 5-7 cm. long; spikelets scabrid, 

 1-flowered, with an imperfect flower or rarely 2-flowered; empty 

 glumes ovate or nearly so, the first about 3 mm. long, 3-nerved, 

 second slightly longer, 5-nerved; flowering glume about 4 mm. long, 

 ovate, obtuse, 7-nerved, often purplish; palea nearly as long as its 

 glume. 



Common on grassy slopes on the mesas and grassy hills. March- 

 May. 



la. M. imperfecta flexuosa Boland. Much resembling the type 

 in habit and foliage, but the branches of the panicle few-flowered, 

 generally in pairs, often reflexed; spikelets larger, acuter, paler and 

 more coriaceous. 



Santa Monica Mountains, Davidson. 



lb. M. imperfecta minor Scribn. Usually densely tufted; culms 

 compressed or angular; leaves mostly basal; branches of the panicles 

 short, divergent or reflexed; spikelets smaller than in the species; 

 the outer glumes shorter and more obtuse. 



San Fernando Mountains, near Chatsworth Park. 



Ic. M. imperfecta refracta Thurb. Densely velvety-pubescent 

 throughout; panicle slender, flexuous, its branches few, distant, 

 strongly refracted; spikelets very acute. 



Santa Monica, Davidson. 



30. DISTICHLIS Raf. Salt-grass. 



Dioecious grasses of saline or maritime habit with 

 rigid culms, creeping or decumbent at the base, flat or 

 convolute leaves and spike-like paniculate inflorescence. 

 Spikelets flattened more on the staminate plants than on 

 the pistillate. Two outer glumes empty, narrow, keeled, 



