GRASS FAMILY 139 



1. L. filiformis Beauv. Culms 1 to 3 feet high, often depauperate; sheaths 

 papillose-hairy; spikes numerous, 1 to 4 inches long, slender, usually purple, 

 the spikelets rather distant, about li/o lines long; glumes more or less mueron- 

 ate, nearly equaling the 3 or 4 awnless florets. 



Open ground, fields and moist depressions. Imperial Co. (Colorado River, 

 Schellenyer) ; common in the warmer parts of America. 



Refs. — Leptochloa filiformis Beauv. Ess. Agrost. 71, 166. 1812. Festuca filiformia Lam. 

 Tabl. Encycl. 1: 191. 1791. Leptochloa mucronata Kunth, Eev. Gram. 1: 91. 1829; Abrams, 

 Fl. Los Ang. 42. 1904. Eleusine mucronata Mielix. FI. Bor. Am. 1: 65. 1803. 



2. L. fascicularis Gray. Culms erect or spreading, 1 to 2 feet high ; sheatlis 

 smooth ; blades erect, as long or longer than the culms ; spikes numerous, 3 to 

 5 inches long; spikelets slightly pediceled, 7 to 11-flowered, the florets much 

 longer than the lanceolate glumes ; lemmas hairy-margined toward the base, 

 short-awned from the toothed apex. 



Ditches and moist, especially alkaline places. Fresno Co. {Griffiths 4729) and 

 Kern Co. {Bayinond) ; east to IMaryland and Florida. 



Refs. — LEPTOcnLOA fascicularis Gray, Man. 588. 1848; Tliiirb. in Wats. Bot. Cal. 2: 292. 

 1880. Festuca fascicularis Lam. Tabl. EncycL 1: 189. 1791. 



3. L. imbricata Thurb. Resembles L. fascicularis; usually strictlj' erect, 

 the panicle more oblong in outline, with shorter spikes; glumes broader and 

 more obtuse; lemmas apiculate but not awned. 



Ditches and moist places. San Bernardino Mts. southward to ilexico and east 

 to Louisiana. 



Locs. — San Bernardino Mts., Wilder 1128, Wright 2118; Riverside, Wheeler in 1908; Salton 

 Basin, Schellenger 55 in 1893; Calexieo, Chase 5518. 



Ref.— Leptochloa imbricata Thurb. in Wats. Bot. Cal. 2 : 293. 1880. 



Tribe VIII. FESTUCExVE. 



44. MONANTHOCHLOE Engelm. 



Spikelets 2 or 3-flowered, unisexual. Ihe staminate and pistillate somewhat 

 dissimilar, usually sessile in pairs and concealed within the leaf-fascicles, the 

 upper floral leaves becoming smaller, at length reduced to sheaths, and resem- 

 bling the glumes. Lemmas membranaceous, rigid, obtuse or denticulate. Palea 

 enclosed Avithin the lemma. — Species 1, tropical and subtropical America. 

 (Greek monanthos. one-flower, and chloe, grass.) 



1. M. littoralis Engelm. A creeping stoloniferous perennial with wiry stems 

 and short rigid crowded leaves. 



Salt marshes and mucky or gravelly tidal flats along the coast of tropical 

 seas in the western hemisphere, extending as far north on the Pacific Coast as 

 Santa Barbara. 



Locs. — Santa Barbara, Hitchcock 2563; San Pedro, Grant 295, 3400; Oceanside, Parish 

 4449; San Diego, Abrams 3456, Cleveland 829. 



Refs. — MoN.\NTiiocHLOii littoralis Engelm. Trans. Acad. St. Louis 1: 436. 1859; Abrams, 

 Fl. Los Ang. 44. 1904. 



45. ORCUTTIA Vasey. 



Spikelets several-flowered, compressed, sessile in loose spikes, the lower 

 spikelets more or less remote. Glumes subequal, broadly lanceolate, irregularly 

 2 to 5-toothed. Lemmas oblong, many-nerved, 5-toothed at the broad apex, the 

 principal nerves extending into the teeth. Low cespitose annuals with short 

 leaves and rather large spikelets. — Species 2, one from Lower California, the 

 other from (Iiico. (C. R. Orcutt, a botanist of San Diego.) 



1. 0. greenei Vasey. Culms 6 to 8 inches high, scabrous or appressed-pilose. 



