showy oniongrass are probably the two most important range forage 

 species of this genus in the West, being more widespread and usually 

 somewhat more abundant than their sister species. 



These perennial grasses are only moderately resistant to drought 

 but withstand grazing fairly well. They usually produce limited 

 amounts of rather large seed. Many of the melicgrasses, such as the 

 native three-flower melic (M. nitens) and Porter melic (M. porteri}, 

 are rather ornamental, with large and handsome panicles, which 

 wave back and forth in the wind ; their spikelets are large, often lus- 

 trous, and richly colored. The melicgrasses usually grow in dense 

 or loose clumps, with simple stalks. The rather large, two- to sev- 

 eral-flowered, tawny or purplish spikelets characteristically bear 

 from one to three sterile flowers in the form of empty, club-shaped 

 lemmas more or less rolled up within each other. The glumes are 

 large, unequal, papery, with thin transparent margins and three to 

 five, usually prominent nerves. The lemmas may be either mem- 

 branous or firm but have thin, translucent edges, and are either awn- 

 less or else awned from between the forked apex. This group of 

 plants is distinguished from its allied genera by the thin, transpar- 

 ent (scarious) margins of the glumes and lemmas, the closed leaf 

 sheaths, and the hooded or club-shaped sterile lemmas. The awned 

 species of Melica closely resemble some species of Bronws. 



