﻿88 Nash: New or noteworthy American Grasses 



BLEPHARONEURON gen. nov. 



A tufted perennial grass with simple culms, long leaves and a 

 terminal loose and open panicle. Spikelets i -flowered, the rachilla 

 articulated above the empty scales, the pedicels filiform, flexuous, 

 abruptly and much thickened at the apex ; scales 3, membranous, 

 the outer 2 empty, 1 -nerved, acute, smooth and glabrous, the first 

 narrower and shorter than the second, the third scale equalling or 

 a little longer than the second, entire or minutely 2 -toothed at the 

 obtuse apex, 3 -nerved, the nerves densely pilose, excepting at the 

 apex, with long ascending silky hairs, the midnerve usually excur- 

 rent in a short point ; palet as long as but narrower than the scale, 

 acuminate, 2 -nerved, densely pilose on and between the nerves, 

 with ascending silky hairs ; stamens 3 ; styles 2, slightly or not 

 at all united at the base ; stigmas plumose. 



A monotypic genus of Mexico and the southwestern United 



States, based on the Vilfa tricholepis of Torrey. This, in recent 



years, has been considered a member of the genus Sporobolus, but 



its inclusion therein necessitates the extension of the limits of that 



genus to such a degree that the result thus obtained neither serves 



the use of expediency, nor that far more vital and important factor 



in systematic work, the treatment of genera from the standpoint 



of natural and evident groups. I would, therefore, propose the 



above name for this interesting grass, the densely pilose nerves of 



the flowering scale and palet suggesting it. The plant has not the 



appearance of a Sporobolus, and the densely pilose character of the 



nerves, above alluded to, abundantly distinguishes it from that 



genus, which, even from its present conception, appears to contain 



species too widely separated in essential characters. 



j 



BLEPHARONEURON TRICHOLEPIS (Torr.). 



if a trichoUp 



155- 1857. 



Sporobolus tricholepis Torr.; Coult. Man. Rocky Mt. Bot. 



411. 1885. 



^Sporobolus gigaxteus sp. nov. 



Plant smooth and glabrous. Culms somewhat tufted, stout, 



from 



, e, 1 -1. 5 metres tall, about I 



cm. thick at the base; sheaths crowded and overlapping, striate, 

 loose, villous-ciliate on the margins, a tuft of villous hairs on each 

 side at the summit, the uppermost sheath elongated and enclosing 



