Muhlenbergia. GRAMINE^E. 277 



Tulare Valley (Blake) ; Deer Creek Canon (Brewer) ; Sonora (Bolander) ; San Diego County, 

 Palmer. Also in Mexico, and eastward in New Mexico and Western Texas. A very rigid wiry 

 grass, of a pale yellowish green color throughout, growing in subalkaline localities and apparently 

 in tufts, but the specimens generally lack the root. In general appearance it has little in common 

 with the preceding but much the aspect of a Vilfa, from which its very brief callus is the chief 

 character that separates it. The ligule is described by Kunth as being an inch long ; neither in 

 the specimen examined by Trinius, nor in those above cited does it exceed one-fourth that length. 

 The rigid stems- are used by the Indians for making baskets. 



21. MUHLENBERGIA, Trin. DROP-SEED GRASS. 



Panicle contracted, or open with spreading rays. Spikelets 1 -flowered. Glumes 

 mostly shorter than the floret, often very small, the lower usually smaller, persistent, 

 obtuse and toothed, or acute and bristle- pointed ; the lower 1- the upper rarely 

 3-nerved. Floret deciduous, with a minute callus or sessile, usually bearded at base. 

 Lower palet herbaceous, 3-rierved, mucronate or awned at the apex ; the upper equal 

 or somewhat shorter. Scales 2, very small. Stamens 3. Ovary oblong, smooth : 

 styles 2, plumose on the upper half. Grain lance-oblong, dropping inclosed in the 

 palets. 



The genus includes about 50 species, mostly American, of which 8 belong to the States east of 

 the Mississippi ; they are more numerous in Texas and in Mexico. 



1. M. gracilis, Trin. Culms from a perennial tuft, erect, rigid, clothed be- 

 low with withered sheaths, from 6 inches to 2 feet high : leaves half a line wide 

 or less, 2 to 4 inches long, mostly convolute and filiform, scabrous, and with the 

 whole plant very pale ; ligule a line long or more ; sheaths longer than the internodes, 

 roughish : panicle 3 to 6 inches long, often bronzed or blackish, very narrow, the 

 erect rays mostly solitary and floriferous for nearly their whole length : spikelets 

 pedicelled or sessile, about 2 lines long exclusive of awn : glumes very variable, the 

 lower usually a little shorter, 1-nerved and more or less acute ; the upper about half 

 the length of the floret, 3-nerved, obtuse, erose at apex or with several teeth, some 

 of which terminate in short awns : lower palet with a short-bearded minute callus, 

 pubescent especially on the midnerve and margins for a portion or the whole of its 

 length and often thickly marked with blackish green spots, terminated by a slender 

 roughish awn 4 to 9 lines long. Agrost. ii. 56. Podoscemum gracile and P. quad- 

 ridentalum, HBK. Nov. Gen. i. 130, 131, t. 682, 683. Calycodon montanum, Nutt. 

 PL Gamb. 186. 



Yosemite Valley (Bolander) ; Lassen's Peak (Mrs. R. M. Austin) ; Colorado and southward to 

 Arizona and Mexico. Very variable in stature and foliage, and especially in the glumes, which 

 sometimes present curiously cut forms. 



2. M. pungens, Thurber. Somewhat resembling the preceding, but the very 

 pale green foliage hard and rigid, each leaf terminated by a hardened point : culms 

 1 to 1J feet high : panicle very open, its solitary rays fasciculately branched just 

 above the base into long 1 -flowered divisions : spikelets, including the awn, 2| lines 

 long : glumes half as long as the floret, pointed by a distinct bristle : floret with a 

 very minute rudiment (sometimes developed into an imperfect floret) ; lower palet 

 acute, the awn a line long or less ; upper palet with 2 setose teeth, which nearly 

 equalling the awn give the appearance of an undeveloped Aristida. Proc. Philad. 

 Acad. 1863, 78. 



On the Colorado River, above Fort Yuma (Ncwberry], and eastward through Arizona and 

 Southern Utah ; also in Nebraska. According to C. J. Croft (Proc. Calif. Acad. Hi. 205), it is 

 regarded in Arizona as most valuable forage, under the names of Black Grama and Grama China. 



3. M. debilis, Trin. Culms 3 to 18 inches high, ascending from a geniculate 

 base, branching from the lower nodes : leaves mostly flat, 1 to 2 inches long, about 

 | line wide, acuminate, puberulent on both surfaces and with the whole plant purple 



