No. 12. 

 ^EGOPOGON GEMINIFLORUS H.'B. K.* 



Plant annual. 



Culms procumbent and branching at the base, or even creeping and rooting at 

 the lower nodes ; erect parts about 1 foot high, very slender, glabrous. 



Leaves of the stem 3 to 6 ; sheaths slender, glabrous, usually not quite con- 

 tiguous ; blade | to 1 line broad, i inch long, flat, flaccid, glabrous ; ligule con- 

 spicuous, about 1 line long, the apex short-lacerate. 



Inflorescence racemose ; spikelets in umbels of 3, one nearly sessile ; umbels 

 on short, slender, scabrous peduncles, usually turned to one side, in a raceme 1-J 

 to 3 inches long ; rachis slender, scabrous. 



Spikelets lanceolate, acute, excluding the awns about 2 lines long, pedicelled 

 ones a little smaller. 



Glumes 3 ; first and second similar, 1-nerved, made up of a narrow body ex- 

 current into an awn, and 2 narrow, lateral, membranaceous, from truncate to 

 acuminate wings (one shorter than the other) ; third (flowering) lanceolate, 

 3-nerved, each nerve excurreut into an awn, middle one (shorter in the pedicelled 

 spikelets) nearly as long as the spikelet, lateral ones minute. 



Flower single, hermaphrodite. Palet membranaceous, lanceolate, 2-nerved, 

 each nerve excurrent into a minute tooth. Stamens 3, anthers about f line long, 

 linear, the cells joined only at the middle. Stigmas short, cylindrical. 



Grain not seen, but probably inclosed in the spikelets, the umbel of 3 drop- 

 ping off together. 



PLATE XII; lower figure, cluster of three spikelets; upper figure, spikelet 

 opened to show the parts. The lateral lobes of the first and second glumes are 

 broader and usually less acute than in the figure. In the upper figure the position 

 of the first glumes is reversed, and in both figures the stamens and pistils are 

 omitted. 



* This description was made from a single set of specimens cultivated from Mexican seed. They 

 are taken to be the typical form of H. B. K. Several forms whose specific relationships have not 

 all been well worked out occur in the southwestern United States and Mexico, and none of them, 

 although they may prove to be varieties of this species, were noted in writing the description. 



