The two eastern species of Melica 



Charles Vancouver Piper 



In the United States, east of the Great Plains region, are two 

 species of Melica which have long been known as M. 7nutica Walt, 

 and M, diffusa Pursh. Their characteristic differences have been 

 well indicated by Scribner, Proc. Acad. Phila. 1885, pp. 40-41. 



Empty glumes very unequal and decidedly shorter than the 3- to 5-flowered spikelets; 

 panicle diffusely branched, many-flowered. 



M, diffusa. 



Empty glumes subequal, nearly as long as the 2-flowered spikelets ; panicle few* 

 flowered, sparingly branched below, often reduced to a single raceme. 



Af. mtUica, 



These two species, as above distinguished, though very closely 

 allied, have generally been recognized, and no question is here 

 raised as to their validity. A consideration of evidence afforded 

 by the literature pertinent to the problem indicates very clearly, 

 however, that the name diffusa does not belong to the plant with 

 which it has so, long been associated. 



The first binomial description relating to either of our species 

 appears in the first edition of the Species Plantarum as follows: 



alii 



;^ MELICA. 



sstma. 3, 



MELICA petalis imberbibus, panicula ramosissima. ^ Bort. ups. so. 

 Melica flosculis glabris ; summo urceolari. GmeL sib, /. /. g8^ A 20. 

 Gramen avenaceum, locustis rarioribus muticis, virginianum majus. 



Moris, hisi. j. /. -?/6. s, 8. /. 7-/ J/. 

 Habitat in Sibiria, Canada. '^ , 



Linnaeus here confuses two very distinct plants. The Siberian 

 plant is the true M. altissima, while the Virginia plant of Morison 

 is what we now know as Melica imitica Walt. The character 

 *' panicula ramosissima" may, with some play to the imagination, 

 be applied to the narrow and dense panicle of the Siberian species, 

 but it is wholly inapplicable to the American plant. 



Walter, the next writer to touch on the eastern American 

 Melicas, distinguished in his Flora Caroliniana, 1788, as he 

 thought, two species, as follows : 



40- MELICA. Cal. 2-valvis, 2-florus. Rudimentum floris inter flosculos. 

 ttitissima i. petalis imberbibus, panicula ramosissima, floribus subacutis. 

 mutica 2. petalis imberbibus, panicula laxa pauciflora, floribus magnis muticis 



obtusis. 



383 



