Eriocoma. GRAMIXE.E. 283 



24. ERIOCOMA, Nutt. SILKY-GRASS. 



Panicle few-flowered with spreading slender dichotomously branched rays, or very 

 narrow with few 1-3-flowered erect rays. Spikelets solitary, 1-flowered. Glumes 

 nearly equal, membranaceous, acuminate or attenuate-pointed, the lower 3-, the 

 upper 5-nerved. Floret much shorter than the glumes, ovate, with a short distinct 

 callus. Palets at first herbaceous, becoming coriaceous or even crustaceous, the lower 

 much broader, involving the upper, clothed with very long white silky hairs, bear- 

 ing at or just below the apex a short straight or curved obscurely triquetrous cadu- 

 cous awn. Scales 3, as long as the ovary. Stamens 3 ; anthers bearded or naked. 

 Ovary stipitate. Urachne Eriocoma, Trin. & Kupr. Fendleria, Steud. 



To this interesting genus, for a long time known only by a single widely distributed species, a 

 second species is doubtfully referred. In both, but conspicuously so in the first, the fibres of the 

 root are clothed with a dense covering of matted cottony hairs, which make them appear three 

 times their real size. Perennials, forming dense tufts crowded below with the remains of the 

 sheaths of former years ; foliage very pale and rigid. Steudel founded his Fcndleria on Fendler's 

 11. 979, which he describes as having a second and neuter' floret as a slender and very thin palet 

 shorter than the glumes. An examination of other specimens collected under this number, and of 

 many others from a wide range of localities, fails to discover this second floret ; there is at most, 

 as noted by Watson (1. c. ), "a very short and thick process at the base of the upper palet." 



1. E. cuspidata, Nutt. Culms 1 to 2 feet high, mostly simple, sometimes 

 geniculate at the upper node : leaves setaceously convolute, rigid, scabrous, the radi- 

 cal ones often equalling the culm ; cauline three, the uppermost nearly equalling 

 the panicle or reduced to a filiform point ; ligule a line long or more, acute, mostly 

 bifid ; sheaths roughish, the middle one shorter than its internode, the upper very 

 loose : panicle at length exserted, about 6 inches long and nearly as broad, the 

 capillary often flextiose rays mostly in pairs, the lower several times dichotomously 

 branched, the upper branched but once, at their extremities, the branches 1-flowered : 

 spikelets 3 or 4 lines long : glumes ventricose below, attenuate-rostrate, pubescent, 

 colorless except the green nerves, the mid nerve only extending the whole length : 

 floret about half the length of the glumes ; lower palet broadly oval, green and herba- 

 ceous when young, shorter than its long hairs, becoming hard, brown, and finally 

 black and shining and naked, the 5 nerves confluent near the obscurely bifid apex ; 

 upper palet equal, narrow, 2-nerved, entire ; awn mostly longer than the palet, nearly 

 straight : anther-cells bearing usually 5 hairs about J their length. Nutt. Gen. i. 

 40 ; Watson, Bot. King Exp. 379. Stipa membranacea, Pursh. Stipa hymenoides, 

 Eoem. & Schult. Syst. ii. 339 and Mant. 188. Urachne lanata, Trin. Panic. 38 ; 

 Trin. & Rupr. Stipacese, 19. Fendleria rhynchelytroides, Steud. Syn. Gram. 420. 



"From the Sierras eastward" (Bolander), and northward to British America; common in 

 Nevada and Utah, at 4,000 to 8,000 feet altitude (IVatsori), extending eastward to Missouri and 

 southward to New Mexico and Texas. A remarkably handsome grass, the regular branching of 

 its panicle, with a few large white spikelets, making it especially noticeable. Valued by travel- 

 lers as one of the several kinds of " Bunch-grass." The awn falls so soon that specimens are fre- 

 quently quite awnless, but the large seeds inclosed in the hardened palets remain a long time. 



2. E. Webberi. Culms densely tufted, 3 to 6 inches high, slender and wiry : 

 leaves convolute, rigid, pungent at the apex, scabrous, the radical 2 to 3 inches long, 

 numerous ; culm leaves 4, the uppermost an inch long or less ; upper ligules mani- 

 fest, rounded, the lower obscure ; lower sheaths crowded, the uppermost dilated : 

 panicle 1 to 2 inches long, very narrow, few flowered ; rays slender, erect, the 

 lower in threes and 1 - 3-flowered, the upper solitary, 1-flowered: glumes 4 lines 

 long, acuminate, often purple-tinged : floret about 3 lines long, with a short callus, 

 deciduous ; lower palet (when young) herbaceous, 5-nerved, the lateral nerves arched 

 towards and meeting the central one, apex minutely 2-lobed, covered throughout with 

 copious silky white hairs a line long ; upper palet equal and similarly hairy on the 

 back ; awn 2 lines long, very slender, roughened, curved : anthers long, naked. 



