FESTUCE.E. 



473 



Kootstocks strong, creeping. Culms smootli, flexuous, 20-90 

 cm. high. Sheaths longer than the internodes, smooth; ligule 

 a hairy ring; blades 30-50 cm. long, mostly near the base, rigid, 

 smooth, involute. Panicle with distant alternate spreading rays, 

 naked below, the lower 10-15 cm. long, branches filiform, divergent. 

 Spikelets on pedicels 2-3 cm. long, ovate, compressed, 4-7 mm. 

 long, florets crowded; first empty glume 2-2.5 mm. long, second a 

 little longer and broader; floral glume with white hairs at the base, 

 1-2 mm. long, compressed, acute to erose. 



Kansas, Vasey in 1889 for Nat. Mus., also found in Colorado. 



109. (226). DISSANTHELIUM Trin. Linna^a 10:305 (1836). 

 Phalaridinm Nees, Nov. Act. Nat. Cur. 19: Suppl. 1, 161 (1843). 

 Stenochloa Nutt. Journ. Acad. Phila. Ser. 2, 1: 189 (1847). 



Spikelets 2-4-flowered, in a narrow usually dense panicle, 

 rachilla glabrous, articulate between the flowers and produced be- 

 yond as a minute bristle. Empty glumes jjersistent, narrow, keeled, 

 1-3-nerved, acute or acuminate, slightly unequal; floral glume 

 much shorter, broader, rather obtuse, awnless, 

 keeled, 3-nerved; palea shorter than its glume, 

 2-keeled, 2-toothed. Stamens 1-3. Grain oblong, 

 subtriquetrous, slightly furrowed or not, included, 

 but not adherent. Low tufted annuals or peren- 

 nials wdth narrow flat blades. Panicle shortly 

 exserted. 



There are two or three species found in America 

 from California to Bolivia. 



1. D. Californicum (Nutt.) Benth. Hook. 

 Icones. PI. 14:56, t. 1375 (1881). Stenochloa 

 Calif arnica Nutt. Journ. Acad. Phila. 1:189 

 (1847). 



Annual; culms sparingly branched below, 10- 

 30 cm. high. Sheaths smooth, rather loose, 

 striate, about as long as the internodes; ligule ob- 

 tuse, 2-3 mm. long; blades flat or conduplicate, broad at the base, 

 acuminate, 10-20 cm. long, 2-4 mm. wide. Panicle loosely spike- 

 like, 5-12 cm. long, rays erect, mostly in pairs (in large plants 



Fig. 95. — Bissan- 



thelium Califor- 

 nicum. Spikelet 

 dissected. (Scrib- 

 ner.) 



