EATONIA | GRAMINEZ 749 
MELICA 
E. obtusata Gray Man. ed. 2, 558, Stems often stout, 1-214 feet high, 
erect, simple, smooth: sheaths shorter than the internodes, usually more 
or less rough, sometimes pubescent: ligules 4-1 line long: leaves 1-9 
inches long, 1-4 lines wide, scabrous: panicle 2-6 inches long, dense and 
usually spike-like, strict, the branches 144 inches long or less, erect: spike- 
lets crowded, 1144-114 lines long: empty glumes unequal, often purplish, 
the first narrow, shorter than and about 44 as wide as the obtuse or almost 
truncate second one: flowering glumes narrow, obtuse, 3-1 line long. 
California to Washington and the Eastern States. . 
E. Pennsylvanica Gray |. c. Stems slender, erect, smooth, 1-3 feet 
high: sheaths shorter than the internodes: ligules 24 line long: leaves 2-7 
inches long, 1-3 lines wide, rough: panicle 3-7 inches long, contracted, 
often nodding, lax, its branches 1-3 inches long: spikelets 114-13 line long, 
usually numerous, somewhat crowded, and appressed to the branches: 
empty glumes unequal, the first narrow, shorter than and about 14 as wide 
as the obtuse or abruptly acute second one which is smooth or somewhat 
rough on the keel; flowering glumes narrow, acute, 114 lines long. In 
moist soil, eastern Washington to the Eastern States. 
38 MELICA L. Sp. 66. 
Tall perennial grasses with flat leaves and contracted or open 
panicles. Spikelets 1- to several-flowered, often secund, rachella 
extended beyond the flowers and usually bearing 2-3 empty club- 
shape hooded scales, convolute around each other. Two lower 
glumes empty, membranous, 3—5-nerved ; flowering glumes larger, 
rounded on the back, 7-13 nerved, sometimes bearing an awn, 
the margins more or less scarious. Palets broad, shorter than 
the glume, 2-keeled. Stamens 3. Style distinct. Stigmas plu- 
mose. Grain free enclosed in the glume and palet.’; 
§ 1 Evumetica. Empty glumes nearly or quite equalling the 
flowers. Flowering glumes scarious margined, obtuse and entire 
at the apex. Sterile flowers clavate, hooded, or like the others, 
but smaller. | 
M. interrupta Trin. Mem. Acad. St. Petersb. 1840, 59. Stems tufted, 
slender, 1-3 feet high, from strong fibrous roots: leaves narrow, long-acu- 
minate, from smooth to very scabrous and pilose-pubescent: panicle 8-12 
inches long, its branches in remote fascicles, very unequal, the lower 1-3 
inches jong : spikelets 5 lines long, minutely scabrous, 1-flowered, with an 
imperfect floret: first empty glumes 3-nerved, second larger and indistinct- 
ly 5-nerved: flowering glume acutish, strongly 7-nerved, usually purplish 
above except the scabrous margins: palet about as long as the glume, 2- 
toothed: sterile flowers short-pedicelled, 24 as long as the perfect ones, 
‘sometimes enclosing a second one. Oregon to California. 
M. stricta Bolander Proc. Cal. Acad. iii, 4. Densely tufted, 1-2 feet 
high, pale green: stems erect, or geniculate below, branched at base, softly 
pubescent to scabrous: sheaths retrorsely velvety-pubescent, longer than 
the internodes: ligules about 2 lines long: leaves 3-4 inches long, 1-2 lines 
wide, flat, or involute toward the rather rigid points, velvety-pubescent on 
both sides: panicle secund, of 6-12 nodding spikelets, the scabrous branches 
mostly single, erect, making the panicle appear single: spikelets 5-7 lines 
long, with 2-3 perfect flowers and rather large rudiments: empty glumes 
lance-oblong, narrowed below, obtuse or barely acute, thin smooth, 5-nervy- 
ed, 4-6 lines long, the first slightly shorter; flowering glumes lanceolate, 
acute, minutely hispid, 7-nerved, 444-544 lines long: palet obovate-oblong, 
obtuse, minutely hispid, pubescent on the arched keels. In the high 
