304 GRAMINE^E. Mdica. 



3. M. bulbosa, Geyer. Culms 1 to 3 feet high, enlarged and bulb-like at base ; 

 roots woolly-pubescent : culm leaves 3 to 6 inches long, setaceously convolute, and 

 like the sheaths nearly smooth or scabrous : panicle 4 to 8 inches long, narrow and 

 spike-like above, interrupted below ; rays erect, mostly in pairs, very unequal, the 

 shorter densely flowered throughout ; spikelets with 2 or 3 perfect flowers, about 4 

 lines long, shining : glumes membranous, broad, obtuse, the lower 3 5-nerved, the 

 upper 5 - 7-nerved : lower palet 3 or 4 lines long, scarious-margined, minutely sca- 

 brous, 7-nerved, the unequal nerves all ceasing below the broadly hyaline obtuse 

 apex ; upper palet ciliate on the strong keels : sterile floret often double, the upper- 

 most minute and hooded. Hook. Journ. Bot. viii. 1 9 ; Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. 

 viii. 409. M. poceoides, Torr. in Pacif. E. Rep. iv. 157, not Nutt. ; Thurber, Bot. 

 Wilkes Exp. 491 ; Bolander, 1. c. iv. 101 ; Watson, Bot. King Exp. 383. 



Santa Inez (Brewer, n. 569), and northward in the Coast Ranges and Sierra Nevada to Oregon, 

 and eastward to Wyoming. Very variable and presenting some puzzling forms especially in the 

 character of the panicle^ Bolander makes a variety inflata upon what appears from the descrip- 

 tion to be a very large many-flowered form. The original M. poawides of Nuttall is probably an 

 Atropis, as indicated by Dr. Gray, 1. c. 



4. M. fugax, Bolander. Culms 1 or 2 feet high, much enlarged and bulb-like 

 at base, slender, wiry, and with the foliage pubescent or scabrous ; roots sparingly 

 tomentose : leaves 2 or rarely 3, the uppermost and longest 4 to 6 inches long by a 

 line wide, often setaceously pointed : panicle simple ; rays remote, soon horizontal, 

 1 6-flowered, the lower clustered and unequal ; spikelets 3 or 4 lines long, of 3 to 5 

 perfect florets, terete becoming somewhat zigzag, soon deciduous : glumes obtuse, 

 with wide scarious margins, 3 - 5-nerved, the upper a third larger, shorter than its 

 floret : lower palet 2 lines long, herbaceo-coriaceous, strongly 7-nerved, only the 

 midnerve reaching the narrowly scarious apex ; upper palet slightly shorter, minutely 

 ciliate: sterile floret similar in texture. Proc. Calif. Acad. iv. 104. M. Geyeri, 

 Thurber, 1. c., 492, not Munro. Glyceria bulbosa, Buckley, Proc. Philad. Acad. 

 1862, 95 ; Gray, same, 335. 



In the Sierra Nevada from Lake Tahoe to Oregon ; Cascade Mountains, Pickering. Interme- 

 diate between Glyceria and Melica, and long ago referred by Nuttall to the former genus under 

 the name which Buckley afterwards published as his own. Much of the confusion among these 

 species has resulted from the failure of collectors to gather roots with their specimens. Lemmon's 

 excellent specimens show that in this species at least there is a contorted rootstock bearing the 

 bulbs and the remains of the growth of several years. 



2. Spikelets of 3 to 8 perfect florets, the lower exceeding the glumes: lower 

 palet prominently 7-nerved, apiculate or distinctly awned by the excurrent 

 midnerve at the notched or bifid or narrowly truncate or rarely long- 

 attenuate tip. BROMELICA. 



Bromus-like grasses, with culms 2 to 5 feet high, all except the first with coarse fibrous roots 

 and tomentose rootlets. Leaves flat, sometimes convolute above, and with the sheaths scabrous 

 or hairy ; ligule short, very thin and mostly lacerate. Panicle with erect or sometimes spreading 

 veiy unequal remotely clustered few-flowered rays, the upper rays and spikelets mostly solitary. 

 Lower palet more or less herbaceous or coriaceous and scariously margined. 



5. M. bromoides, Gray. Culms bulbous at base, very leafy : leaves sometimes 

 6 lines wide, the uppermost 1 or 2 inches long : spikelets about 8 lines long, of 

 4 or 5 perfect florets : glumes ovate, acutish, the upper often irregularly notched : 

 lower palet 4 lines long, narrowly margined, minutely scabrous, lanceolate, acute, 

 with 2 narrow ciliate teeth, the three principal nerves running to the apex, the mid- 

 nerve ending as a point between the teeth or slightly prolonged ; upper palet one- 

 fourth shorter, minutely 2-toothed, ciliate on the nerves. Proc. Amer. Acad. viii. 

 409. M. Geyeri, Bolander, Proc. Calif. Acad. iv. 103, not Munro Ms. M. poasoides, 

 var. bromoides, of Bolander's distribution (n. 6119). 



In the Coast Ranges and Sierra Nevada from San Francisco and Mount Dana (Bolander) to 

 Oregon, Howcll. Bolander states that the bulbs shrink greatly in drying and that when fresh 

 they are often an inch in diameter. As compared with the two other more or less awned species, 



