390 MISC. PUBLICATION 200, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



55. Muhlenbergia rigens (Benth.) Hitchc. DEERGKASS. (Fig. 

 811.) Culms rather slender stiffly erect, in small bunches, with a hard 

 tough base, sometimes with short rhizomes, 1 to 1.5 m taU; sheaths 

 smooth or slightly scabrous, mostly overlapping, the lower crowded, 

 expanded, somewhat papery; ligule firm, truncate, 1 to 2 mm long; 

 blades scabrous, elon- 

 gate, involute, tapering 

 into a long slender point; 

 panicle grayish or pale, 



FIGURE 808. Muh- 



FIGUEE 807. Muhlenbergia longili- lenbergia lindheim- 

 gula. Panicle and ligule, X 1; eri. Panicle, X 1; 

 glumes and floret, X 10. (Jones, glumes and floret, 

 Ariz.) X 10. (Type.) 



FIGURE 809. Muhlenbergia involuta. Pani- 

 cle and ligule, X 1; spikelet and floret, 

 X 10. (Type.) 



FIGURE 810. Muhlenbergia emersleyi. Panicle, X 1; glumes and floret, X 10. (Wooton and 



Standley, N.Mex.) 



slender, spikelike, 15 to 30 cm long or more; glumes 2 to 3 mm long, 

 from acute to obtuse or somewhat erose, scabrous-puberulent, rarely 

 faintly 3-nerved; lemma slightly exceeding the glumes, scaberulous, 

 sparsely pilose at base, 3-nerved toward the narrowed summit, awn- 

 less. 91 (Epicampes rigens Benth.) Dry or open ground, 

 hillsides, gullies, and open forest, Texas to southern California and 

 northern Mexico (fig. 812). 







