No. 45. 



DIPLACHNE VISCIDA Scrib. 



i 



Plant annual or short-lived perennial, light green or somewhat purplish on 

 sheaths and inflorescence. 



Culms erect, or low and spreading from a tufted base, branching freely, geni- 

 culate, hollow, terete, smooth, 6 to 15 inches tall. 



Leaves; radical and from radical shoots, few and short; of stem 3 to 5; sheaths 

 about equaling internode, compressed, open, smooth; blade flat or folded, with 

 slightly involute margins, somewhat scabrous above and below, 2 to 4 inches long; 

 ligule membranaceous, truncate, lacerate, | line long. 



Inflorescence a rather compact, narrow, erect panicle, 2 to 3 inches long, 

 included at the base; rachis angular, slightly hispid; branches slender, alternate, 

 appressed or somewhat spreading at maturity, ^ to 1 inch long, bearing 6 to 10 

 appressed, nearly sessile spikelets on the flattened rachis. 



Spikelets oblong, 4- to 6-flowered, 2 to 2i lines long; internode of slender 

 rachilla articulate below, i line long; first glume ovate, acute, hyaline, scabrous 

 on the single nerve, 1 line long; second glume same, scarcely % line longer; floral 

 glumes elliptical-oblong, 1 line long, 2 hyaline lobes or teeth at summit somewhat 

 lacerate, lateral nerves nearly marginal, pubescent below, vanishing in the margin 

 in very obscure teeth, mucronate awn of mid-nerve i line long; palet elliptic-oblong, 

 hyaline, with 2 scabrous nerves and shallow cleft apex, minutely ciliate. 



Grain light, opaque amber, with brown scar, elliptic, flattish, line long, 

 falling with flower or spikelet nearly complete. 



PLATE XLV; a, spikelet; b, empty glumes; c, floral glumes, dorsal and side 

 views-; d, palet. 



New Mexico, Arizona, and Mexico. 



