———_ —- 
eS eae 
MELICA GRAMINEZ 751 
_ DISTICHLIS 
al nerves below the middle, 7-9-nerved, 4-5 lines long: palet oblong, obtuse 
or emarginate, pubescent on the 2 arched keels, 3-4 lines long. On open 
ridges in the mountains, Oregon to California. : 
Var. minor Vasey, Beal Grasses N. Am. ii, 510. Stems slender, 
10-15 inches high erect: mde very simple, 144-4 inches long: spikelets 
usually 3-flowered. On dry ridges in the Siskiyou Mountains. ; 
M. aristata Thurber, Bolander Proc. Cal. Acad. iv, 103, Stems slen- 
de1, tufted, 2-4 feet high: leaves flat, 2-4 inches long, 3 lines wide: panicle 
narrow, 5-12 inches long, its branches erect: spikelets 3-5-flowered, pale or 
purplish: first empty glume oblong, about 3.lines long; the second about 
a line longer: flowering glumes about 5 lines ‘long, with a few stiff marginal 
hairs near the base, very scabrous, the central nerve excurrent just below 
the bifid tip as an awn 3-5 lines long: palet about 34¢ lines long, strongly 
ciliate at the apex. In mountains, Washington to California. 
M. acuminata Bolander 1. c. 104. Stems slender, erect, 2-3 feet high, 
with thickened bulbous base: sheaths mostly equalling or shorter than the 
internodes, more or less pubescent : ligules 1-2 lines iong, laciniate: panicle 
4-12 inches long, narrow, the capillary branches erect-or barely spreading: 
spikelets 3-5-flowered, often purplish: first empty glume linear, about 2 
lines long, much smaller than the acuminate second one: flowering glumes 
lanceolate, long-acuminate about 5 lines long, 5-7-nerved: ciliate on the 
margins below: palet about half as long as the glume, densely ciliate above, 
narrowly truncate.. In open woods, California to Alaska. 
M. spectabilis Scribn. Proc. Philad. Acad. 1885, 45. A slender tufted 
stoloniferous perennial: stems about 244 feet high, with a corm at the base 
ofeach: sheaths mostly longer than the internodes: ligules white, about 1 
line long: leaves 3-4, flat or involute, scabrous, 7-10 inches long, 1-2 lines 
wide: panicle simple, 5-8 inches long, its slender branches solitary or in 
pairs, sometimes in threes, the longest 114-2 inches long: spikelets 3-8- 
flowered: empty glumes ovate, obtuse or acute, with transverse nerves 
near the middle, the first 3-nerved, the second 5-nerved, 244-3 lines long: 
flowering glumes 314-4 lines Pea apcik) ¢. 0 tapering, oval, the apex with 2 
very short teeth or a notch, 7-9-nerved: palet elliptical, 24¢ lines long. 
Oregon to Montana and California. 
M. scabrata Scribn. Piper & Beattie Fl. Palouse Reg. 25. Stems 
mostly solitary, erect, 2-4 feet high, with bulbous base: sheaths nearly as 
long or longer than the internodes, scabrous: leaves flat, linear, 5-7 inches 
long, 1-2 lines wide, scabrous on both sides: panicle erect ,narrow,3-7 inches 
long, lower branches mostly in threes,the 2 outer short and bearing a single 
spikelet, the central one longer and bearing 2-5 spikelets 5-7-flowered, 
usually purple; lower empty glumes 2% lines long, the upper 344-4 lines 
long, acutish: flowering glumes about 316 lines long all minutely 
scabrous. In low meadows about Pullman Washington. 
89 DISTICHLIS Raf. Journ. Phys. Ixxxix, 104, 
Dioecious grasses with rigid stems, creeping or decumbent at 
base, flat or convolute leaves, and numerous spikelets in spike- 
like panicles. Spikelets flattened, more numerous on the stamin- 
ate plants than on the pistilate, 6-16-flowered. Rachella con- 
tinuous in the staminate spikelets, articulated in the pistillate. 
Two lower glumes empty, narrow, keeled, acute, shorter than the 
flowering ones. Flowering glumes broader, many-nerved, acute, 
rigid: “Palets 2-keeled. Stamens. 3. Styles thickened at the 
base, rather long, distinct. Stigmas long-plumose. Grain free 
enclosed in the glume and palet. 
