Melica. GRAMINE^E. 303 



* Glumes nearly equalling the florets : lower palet scarious-margined, mostly obtuse and entire 



at the apex. 



Spikelet of one perfect flower (rarely 2) and a short-pedicelled sterile one. 1. M. IMPERFECTA. 

 Spike.lets with 2 to 4 perfect Howers. 



Panicle racemose and secund : spikelets membranous : not bulbiferous. 2. M. STRICTA. 

 Panicle dense, spike-like above : spikelets membranous : sterile floret 



hooded : culm bulbiferous. 3. M. BULBOSA. 



Panicle spreading, few-flowered : florets coriaceo-herbaceous : bulbiferous. 4. M. FUGAX. 



* * Glumes distinctly shorter than the lower floret : lower palet acute or long-acuminate, or often 



notched or truncate and bifid, pointed or awned. 



Lower palet merely notched or bifid, with a brief point or manifest awn. 



Culm bulbiferous : lower palet acute : awn less than a line long. 5. M. BROMOIDES. 



Culm not bulbiferous : lower palet truncate and 2-toothed or 2-lobed. 



Lower paint conspicuously ciliate below, mostly short-awned. 6. M. HARFORDII. 



Lower palet with only a few stiff marginal hairs at base : awn from below 



the tip, half its length or more. 7. M. ARISTATA. 



Lower palet ending in a long setiform acumination : culm bulbiferous. 8. M. ACUMINATA. 



1. Glumes nearly or quite equalling the florets : lower palet scariously mar- 

 gined, obtuse and entire at the apex : sterile floret clavate, hooded, or like 

 the others bat smaller. MELICA proper. 



1. M. imperfecta, Trin. Culms tufted from strong fibrous roots, 1 to 3 feet 

 high, slender : leaves narrow, long-acuminate, from smooth to very scabrous and 

 pilose-pubescent : panicle 8 to 1 2 inches long, rays in remote fascicles, very unequal 

 (1 to 3 inches long), the shorter densely flowered to the base ; spikelets 2 lines long, 

 minutely scabrous, 1 -flowered with an imperfect floret : glumes 3-nerved, the upper 

 and larger indistinctly 5-nerved : lower palet rather acute, strongly 7-nerved, usually 

 purplish above except the scarious margin ; upper palet about as long, 2-toothed : 

 sterile flower short-pedicelled, two-thirds as long as the perfect one, sometimes en- 

 closing a second. Mem. Acad. St. Petersb. 1840, 59, and Icon. Gram. t. 355; 

 Bolander, Proc. Calif. Acad. iv. 101. M. colpodioides, Nees, Tayl. Mag. Nat. Hist, 

 i. 282. M. panicoides, Nutt. PI. Gamb. 188. 



Var. flexuosa, Bolander, 1. c. Branches of the few-flowered simple panicle 

 generally in pairs, widely spreading, often reflexed : florets larger, acute, paler and 

 more coriaceous. 



Var. refracta. Densely velvety pubescent throughout : panicle slender, flexuose, 

 the few distant few-flowered rays all strongly refracted : flowers very acute. 



In various localities, from San Diego northward to Oregon ; the first variety on the road from 

 Mariposa to Clark's (Bolander), and Santa Inez Mission (Brewer, n. 569) ; the second near San 

 Bernardino, Lcmmon. Exceedingly variable in size and appearance. Sometimes both the glumes 

 and florets are blackish-purple while their shining scarious margins are bronzed ; specimens from 

 Los Angeles are pale straw-color throughout. Had it priority, Nuttall's name for the species 

 would be preferable as descriptive, the spikelets having a strong resemblance to some Panicums. 



2. M. stricta, Bolander. Densely tufted, 1 or 2 feet high : leaves mostly four, 

 4 to 6 inches long by 2 lines wide at the subauriculate base, rarely scabrous above 

 and slightly hairy beneath, with a convolute rigid point and densely velvety-pubes- 

 cent sheaths : panicle 4 to 6 inches long, about 12-flowered, resembling a simple 

 secund raceme, the mostly solitary erect capillary rays 1 - 4-flowered ; spikelets 

 mostly pendulous, 6 to 8 lines long, with 2 to 4 membranous scabrous perfect flowers : 

 glumes nearly equal, narrowed below, acute, 5-nerved : lower palet 6 lines long, un- 

 equally 5-nerved, the lateral nerves connected by cross-veinlets : upper palet half as 

 long, emarginate, softly ciliate : neutral floret similar but much smaller. Proc. 

 Calif. Acad. iii. 4, and iv. 104 ; Watson, Bot. King Exp. 384. 



In the Sierra Nevada (Brewer, Bolander, Lemmon), and frequent in the mountains of Nevada. 

 Though generally densely pubescent, some of the Nevada specimens are strongly scabrous. Lem- 

 mon's specimens have the scarious sheaths at the base very dark purple, and the spikelets 

 beautifully tinged below with the same color but otherwise of a rich light brown, presenting a 

 marked contrast to the usual notably pale and colorless condition. This species does not make a 

 .bulb, but the lower node is swollen and solid, and tunicated with sheaths as in bulbous forms. 



