HOLCUS GRAMINE^E 747 



MUNROA 



perfect, the upper staminate. Glumes 4, the two lower empty, 

 membranous, keeled, the first 1-nerved, the second 3-nerved and 

 often short-awned. Flowering glumes chartaceous, that of the 

 upper flower bearing a short awn. Palet narrow, 2-keeled. Sta- 

 mens 3. Styles distinct, with plumose stigmas. Grain oblong, 

 free, enclosed in the glume. 



H. LANATUS L. Sp. 1048. Light green, densely and softly pubescent 

 stems l/<2-2^2 feet high, erect, often decumbent at base, simple : sheaths 

 shorter than the internodes : ligules %-\ line long : leaves 1-6 inches long, 

 2-6 lines wide: spikelets 2 lines long: empty glumes about 2 lines long, 

 white villous, the upper awn-pointed : flowering glumes 1 line long, smooth, 

 glabrous and shining, the lower sparsely ciliate on the keel, somewhat ob- 

 tuse, the upper 2-toothed and bearing a hooked awn just below the apex. 

 Common in meadows and waste places : introduced from Europe. 



Tribe 4 Festucacese. Spikelets two- to several- flowered, usually 

 hermaphrodite, pedicellate, in panicles or racemes, the former some- 

 times dense and spike-like. Flowering glumes usually longer than 

 the empty ones, awnless or with one to several mostly straight awns 

 which are either terminal or borne just below the apex. 



33 MUNROA Torr. Pac. R. Rep. iv, 158. (1856.) 



Low diffusely branched grasses with flat pungently pointed 

 leaves and few flowers in panicles. Spikelets in clusters of 3-6. 

 nearly sessile in the axils of the floral leaves, 3-5-flowered, the 

 flowers all perfect. Glumes 5-7, the two lower empty, lanceolate, 

 acute, 1-nerved, hyaline. Flowering glume larger, 3-nerved, one 

 or two empty ones above the flowering ones. Palets hyaline. 

 Stamens 3. Styles distinct, elongated: stigmas barbellate or short- 

 plumose. Grain free, enclosed in the glume and palet. 



M. squarrosa Torr. 1. c. Stems 2-8 inches long, tufted, erect, decum- 

 bent or prostrate, much branched: sheaths short, crowded at the nodes 

 and at the ends of the branches, smooth, pilose at the base and throat, 

 sometimes ciliate on the margins : ligules a ring of hairs : leaves 1 inch 

 long or less, 1-6 lines wide, rigid, scabrous : spikelets 2-5-flowered, the flow- 

 ers perfect : empty glumes 1-nerved: flowering glumes 2-2% lines long, lon- 

 ger than the empty ones, 3-nerved, the nerves excurrent and forming 3 teeth 

 or awns, with tufts of hairs about the middle: palets obtuse. On dry 

 plains, eastern Oregon to Alberta and Texas. 



34 PHRAGMITES Trin. Fund. Agrost. 134. 



Tall perennial grasses with broad flat leaves and very numerous 

 flowers in ample panicles. Spikelets 3- to several-flowered, the 

 first flower often staminate, the others perfect. Rachella articu- 

 lated between the flowering glumes, long-pilose. Two lower 

 glumes empty, unequal, membranous, lanceolate, acute, shorter 

 than the spikelet, the third glume empty or subtending a stamin- 

 ate flower. Flowering glumes glabrous, narrow, long-acuminate, 

 much exceeding the short palets. Stamens 3. Styles distinct, 

 short. Stigmas plumose. Grain free, loosely enclosed in the 

 palet and glume. 



P. communis Trin. 1. c. Stems stout, 3-15 feet high, erect, from long 



