420 GRAMINE^. (GRASS FAMILY.) 



M. stricta of Brandegee's Fl. S. W. Colorado. From Colorado to Arizona, 

 New Mexico, and Texas. 



* * Stems usually bulbous at base. 

 +- Second glume decidedly shorter than the third. 



2. M. Spectabile, Scribner. Panicle nodding, loosely few-flowered, the 

 slender branches erect spreading : terminal floret acute : flowering glume 

 very broadly acuminate, obtuse or notched at the tip. Proc. Philad. Acad., 

 1885, p. 45. M. bulbosa of Bot. King Exped., and Fl. Colorado. This differs 

 from M. bulbosa, Geyer, in its usually taller and more slender stems, more 

 open and nodding panicle, more slender and flexuose pedicels, shorter empty 

 glumes, and broader flowering glumes which taper abruptly to a rounded 

 and usually two-lobed summit. In the mountains, from Colorado and Utah 

 to Montana and Idaho. 



*- *- Second glume as long as the third. 



3. M. Californica, Scribner. Panicle erect, densely many-Jlowered, 

 branched below, spicate above ; spikelets about 4 lines long, with about three perfect 

 florets, the rudimentary one obtuse. Loc. cit. p. 46. M. bulbosa of Bot. Cali- 

 fornia. From the Upper Yellowstone ( T. C. Porter), where the stem may 

 lack the bulbous character, to California. 



4. M. bulbosa, Geyer. Stems singly or densely tufted, usually about 



2 feet high, simple : sheaths and upper surface of the leaves scabrous : pani- 

 cle erect, the branches ^pressed, few-flowered ; spikelets 5 to 6 lines long, with 

 5 to 8 perfect flowers, the terminal floret acute. From Utah and Montana to 

 Oregon and Washington Territory. 



40. DISTICHLIS, Raf. SPIKE GRASS. 



Perennials with widely creeping rootstocks and short stems clothed to the 

 top with crowded sheaths : leaves rigid, mostly involute : pistillate spikelets 

 much more rigid than the staminate. 



1. D. maritima, Raf. Stems 6 to 18 inches high, sometimes branched 

 below : leaves about 4 inches long, usually distichously spreading, long-acumi- 

 nate : spike oblong, 1 to 3 inches long; spikelets 5 to 12-flowered. Journ. 

 Phys. Ixxxix. 104. Brizopyrum spicatum, Hook. & Am. 



Var. stricta, Thurber. Leaves setaceously-con volute : panicle loose ; 

 spikelets few, erect, often an inch long, 10 to 20-flowered. Bot. Calif, ii. 

 306. From Mexico northward throughout the Rocky Mountains, and west- 

 ward to California. 



41. POA, L. MEADOW GRASS. 



Stems tufted from mostly perennial roots : leaves smooth, usually flat and 



soft. 



1. Flowering glume rounded on the back, obtuse. 



1. P. Californica, Munro. Densely tufted perennial, its somewhat rigid 

 stems 4 inches to 2 feet high : radical leaves about half as long as the stem, mostly 

 flat ; stem-leaves short, the uppermost often reduced to a mucro : panicle 2 or 



3 inches long, narrow or linear, or with the rays spreading; spikelets 3 to 



