No. 33. 

 TRIODIA ALBESCENS (Munro.). (Tricuspis albescens Munro in Herb.) 



Plant perennial, with slightly thickened base, smooth and often glaucous 

 throughout. 



Roots coarse. 



Culms loosely tufted, erect, solid, terete, not branching, 15 to 30 inches tall. 



Leaves; radical, sheaths short and open; blades flat or folded, involute, slen- 

 der-pointed, 2 to 3 lines wide, 5 to 12 inches long; of culm 2 to 4, sheaths shorter 

 than internodes, open above; blades like those of radical leaves; ligule a dense line 

 of short, fine hairs. 



Inflorescence a slender, contracted, close panicle, somewhat interrupted below, 

 erect or slightly nodding, ^ inch wide, 4 to 8 inches long; branches appressed, un- 

 equal, to 1^ inches long, bearing along their entire length rather crowded short- 

 pedicelled spikelets. 



Spikelets oval, compressed, 8- to 12-flowered, 2- to 3 lines long and f as wide; 

 first and second glumes nearly equal, second, slightly larger, broadly ovate, 

 acute, carinate, hyaline, smooth. 1-nerved, ]- lines long; internodes of rachis 

 curved, i line long or less; floral glume broadly-elliptical, 3-nerved, emarginate or 

 nearly entire, hyaline, smooth, or nearly so, midnerve slightly if at all excurrent, 

 lateral nerves not marginal; palet broadly ovate, obtuse, 2-keeled with the mar- 

 gins folded flat, li lines long. 



Grain elliptical, yellow, i line long. 



PLATE XXXIII; a, spikelets; b, empty glumes; c, floral glumes; d, palet. 

 Texas and New Mexico. 



