No. 48. 

 EREMOCHLOE BIGELOVII Watson. 



AND 



EREMOCHLOE KINGII Watson. 



1. Eremochloe Bigelovii. 



Culms 6 to 10 inches high, tufted, branching below, smooth; upper portion 

 naked, except 2 or 3 small approximate leaves below the panicle. 



Leaves with blades | to H inches long, setaceous, striate, pungent. 



Panicle small, 1 inch or less long, simple, or with 1 or 2 short branches, 

 few-flowered. 



Spikelets 4-flowered; 2 lower neutral; third perfect; fourth, or uppermost, 

 reduced to 3 feathery awns on a short pedicel. 



Empty glumes lanceolate, smooth, 1-nerved, about 3 lines long. 



Sterile flowers consisting each of a flowering glume and palet. Flowering glume 

 2-lobed to the middle, densely ciliate, 3-nerved, with a slender feathery awn between 

 the lobes, these tipped with a short awn; palets very narrow, smooth, 2-nerved, 

 2-toothed at the apex or very rudimentary. 



Perfect flower with the flowering glume deeply 3-lobed, lobes extending into 

 stiff ciliate awns; palet two-thirds as long, ovate, abruptly acuminate, smooth, 

 slightly toothed at the apex; awns 3, strongly ciliate and united at the apex of a 

 short smooth pedicel; a linear or awn-like scale sometimes attached to one of the 

 sterile palets. 



2. Eremochloe Kingii. 



Culm,s low, tufted, 1 to 2 inches high. 



Leaves crowded at the base of the stem; sheath dilated, ciliate at the margins 

 and apex, persistent, and with the old blades cut into fibrillae; blades to 1 inch 

 long, rigid, involute, pungent. 



Panicle short, oblong, sheathed at the base by the upper leaf, less simple than 

 in the other species. 



Spikelet 4-flowered; flowers as in E. Bigelovii. 



Empty glumes 4 lines long, acute, smooth. 



Sterile flowers more deeply lobed; middle awn membranaceous, margined 

 below. 



Perfect flower with the flowering glume deeply 3-lobed, middle lobe narrower. 

 Pedicel and awns similar. 



PLATE XLVIII; 1, Eremochloe Bigelovii; a, empty glumes; ft, flowering 

 glume; c, palet; d, pedicel and feathery awns. 



2, Eremochloe Kingii; e, spikelet; /, empty glumes; g, flowering glume: h, 

 palet; i, pedicel and feathery awns. 



Eremochloe Bigelovii was found on the bluffs of the Rio Grande in western 

 Texas. It has not recently been collected. 



E. Kingii has been found at Peach Springs, Arizona, and at several places in 

 Nevada. 



