MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



205 



29. SCHIZACHNE Hack. 



Spikelets several-flowered, disarticulating above the glumes and 

 between the florets, the rachilla glabrous; glumes unequal, 3- and 5- 

 nerved ; lemmas lanceolate, strongly 7-nerved, long-pilose on the callus, 

 awned from j ust below the teeth of the prominently bifid apex ; palea with 

 softly pubescent, thickened submarginal keels, the 

 hairs longer toward the summit. Rather tall peren- 

 nial with simple culms and open rather few-flowered 

 panicles. Type species, Schizachne Jauriei Hack. 

 (S. purpurascens) . Name from Greek schizein, to 

 split, and achne, chaff, alluding to the bifid lemma. 

 1. Schizachne purpurascens (Torr.) Swallen. 



FALSE MELIC. (Fig. 400.) 



Culms erect from a loosely 



tufted decumbent base, 50 to 



100 cm tall; sheaths closed; 



blades flat, narrowed at the 



base, 1 to 5 mm wide; panicle 



about 10 cm long, the branches 



single or in pairs, more or less 



drooping, bearing 1 or 2 spike- 



lets; spikelets 2 to 2.5 cm long; 



glumes purplish, less than half 



as long as the spikelet; lem- 



mas about 1 cm long, the awn 



as long as the lemma or longer. 



21 (Melica striata Hitchc.; 



M. purpurascens Hitchc.; 



Avena torreyi Nash.) Rocky 



woods, Newfoundland to 



southern Alaska, south to 



Pennsylvania, Kentucky, 



South Dakota, and Montana, 



and in the mountains from 



British Columbia to New 



Mexico (fig. 401); Siberia and 



Japan. 



30. VASEYOCHLOA 

 Hitchc. 



FIGURE 398. Melica frv- 



Spikelets sub terete or 

 slightly compressed, several- 

 flowered, the rachilla disar- 

 ticulating above the glumes and between the 



m .-cacaor C a. fl rets > the ] oints , ve] 7 s t hor t; gto rather 



Plant, xi; floret, x 5." (Hoff- firm, unequal, much snorter tnan the lemmas, 



the first 3- to 5-nerved, the second 7- to 9- 



nerved; lemmas rounded on the back, firm, closely imbricate, 7- to 

 9-neryed, broad, narrowed to an obtuse entire apex, and with a 

 stipelike hairy callus, pubescent on the lower part of the back and 

 margins; palea shorter than the lemma, splitting at maturity, the 



(Munz 

 " 1 Harwood 



