No. 41. 

 DIPLACHNE FASCICULARIS P. B. (Leptochloa fascicularis Gray.) 



Plant annual, glaucous or light green, more or less purplish on the sheaths 

 and inflorescence. 



Roots numerous, coarse. 



Culms few, loosely tufted at base, erect or decumbent, branching, striate, 

 smooth, 2 to 3 feet tall. 



Leaves; radical and from sterile culms with thin, smooth, striate, equitant 

 sheaths and slender involute, slightly hispid blades, 1 line wide unrolled, 6 to 12 

 inches long ; of stems 3 or 4 ; sheaths usually exceeding internodes, smooth ; blade 

 like that of radical leaves, upper one exceeding panicle and sheathing its base ; 

 ligule membranaceous, triangular, ovate, acute, entire, wider than blade, H to 2 

 lines long. 



Inflorescence a loose, narrow, spreading panicle, included at base in upper 

 sheath, 6 to 8 inches long ; of many linear, spike-like spreading branches, hispid, 

 mostly alternate, 2 to 4 inches long, bearing 8 to 15 nearly sessile, appressed spike- 

 lets ; general rachis angular, hispid. 



Spikelets linear-oblong, or lanceolate at maturity, flattened, 6- to 9-flowered, 3^ 

 to 4 lines long ; internodes of articulate rachilla, - line long ; first glume varying 

 from ovate-lanceolate to linear, barely acute, or acuminate, hispid on back, 

 1-nerved, 1 to H lines long ; second glume lanceolate to oblong, longer and often 

 somewhat 3 -toothed or lacerate at the apex ; floral glumes linear-oblong, acute, 

 ciliate on the lower third of the nerve, and pubescent at the base, 1 to 2 lines long, 

 3-nerved, 2 lateral nerves marginal, ending in rather inconspicuous teeth, mid- 

 nerve excurrent in a hispid awn nearly line long ; palet linear, with two prom- 

 inent pubescent nerves, narrow, hyaline, infolded margins, and truncate or slightly 

 rounded, minutely ciliate apex. 



Grain surrounded with rather loose, hyaline pericarp ; salmon pink with small 

 garnet scar at base, flat, lanceolate, 1 line long ; readily shelling out of flower as 

 the spikelet falls. 



PLATE XLI ; a, spikelet ; &, empty glumes ; c, floral glume, dorsal and side 

 view; d, palet. 



This species presents considerable variation in the spikelets, forming probably 

 several varieties. 



It is extensively distributed over the country, both north and south, but be- 

 comes abundant in Texas and westward, also in Mexico. 



