WOOTON AND STANDLEY FLORA OF NEW MEXICO, 95 



62. MELIGA L. Melic grass. 



Perennials with usually soft flat leaves and with rather large spikelets in lax or 

 dense, usually narrow panicles, or sometimes in simple racemes; spikelets 2 to several- 

 flowered, terete or slightly flattened; rachilla jointed above the glumes and between 

 the fertile florets, usually bearing 2 or 3 empty ghimes at the apex; glumes unequal, 

 membranaceous, awnless, 3 to 5-nerved; lemmas larger, rounded on the back, 7 to 

 13-nerved, scarious-margined, awnless or short-awned; palea broad, 2-keeled; stamens 

 3; styles distinct; grain free. 



1. MeHca porteri Scribn. Proc. Acad. Phila. 1885: 44. pi. l.f. 17, IS. 1885. 



Melica mulica parvijlora Porter in Port. & Coult. Syn. Fl. Colo. 149. 1874. 



Melica parvijlora Scribn. Mem. Torrey Club 5: 50. 1894. 



Type locality: Glen Eyrie, Colorado. 



R.^nge: Colorado and Kansas to Arizona and Texas. 



New Mexico: Chama; Santa Fe; Sandia Mountains; Las Vegas; Winsors Ranch; 

 Mogollon Mountains; Silver City; Organ Mountains; White and Sacramento moun- 

 tains. Damp woods, in the Transition and Canadian zones. 



63. BROMUS L. Brome grass. 



Annuals or perennials with flat leaves and rather large, erect or pendulous spikelets; 

 spikelets few to many-flowered, slightly or strongly flattened laterally, paniculate 

 or rarely racemose; rachilla jointed above the glumes and between the florets; glumes 

 unequal, acute or the second short-awned, 1 to 5-nerved, shorter than the lemmas; 

 lemmas keeled or rounded on the back, 5 to 9-nerved, usually 2-toothed at the apex 

 and awned from the back just below the point or from between the teeth, or some- 

 times awnless; palea a little shorter than the lemma, 2-kceled; stamens usually 3; 

 stigmas sessile, plumose; grain sulcate, adherent to the palea. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



Lemmas compressed-carinate at the base. 

 Lemmas appressed-villous. 



Sheaths more or less villous la. B. marginatus 



latior. 



Sheaths glabrous or nearly so , lb. B. marginatus 



seminudus. 

 Lemmas smooth or scabrous. 



Leaves and sheaths conspicuously pubescent 2. B. unioloides. 



Leaves glabrous, the sheatlis sometimes slightly pu- 

 bescent. 



Awns inconspicuous; leaves narrow 3. B. polyanthus. 



Awns conspicuous; leaves wide 3a. B. polyanthus 



paniculatus. 

 Lemmas not compressed-carinate but rounded, at least at the 

 base. 

 Lemmas glabrous or scabrous. 

 Sheaths pubescent. 



Panicles dense, contracted; plants low, 40 cm. high 



or less 4. B. hordeaceus 



glabrescens. 

 Panicles loose, more or less spreading; plants more 



than 50 cm. high 5. B. racemosus. 



