304 



GRAMINE.E. Mdiai. 



3. M. bulbosa, Geyer. Culms 1 to 3 feet high, enlarged and hulh-like at base ; 

 roots woolly-pul)escei>t : culm leaves 3 to 6 inches long, setaceously convolute, and 

 like the sheaths nearly smooth or scabrous : panicle 4 to 8 inches long, narrow and 

 spike-like above, interrupted below ; rays erect, mostly in pairs, very unequal, the 

 shorter densely flowered throughout : spikelets with 2 or 3 perfect flowers, about 4 

 lines long, shining : glumes membranous, broad, obtuse, the lower 3 - 5-nerved, the 

 upper 5 - 7-nerved : lower palet 3 or 4 lines long, scarious-margined, minutely sca- 

 brous, 7-nerved, the une(iual nerves all ceasing below the broadly hyaline obtuse 

 apex ; upper palet ciliate on the strong keels : sterile floret often double, the upper- 

 most minute and hooded. — Hook. Journ. Bot. viii. 19; Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad, 

 viii. 409. M. poceoides, Torr. in Pacif R. Eep. iv. 157, not Nutt. ; Thurber, Bot. 

 Wilkes Exp. 491 ; Bolander, 1. c. iv. 101 ; Watson, Bot. King Exp. 383. 



Santa Inez {Brewer, n. 569), and northward in the Coast Ranges and Sierra Nevada to Oregon, 

 and eastward to Wj^oming. Very variable and presenting some puzzling forms especially in the 

 character of the panicle. Bolander makes a variety infafu upon what appears from the descrip- 

 tion to be a very large many-flowered form. The original M. 2W(Zoides of Nuttall is probably an 

 Atropis, as indicated by Dr. Gray, 1. c. 



4. M. fugax, Bolander. Culms 1 or 2 feet high, much enlarged and bulb-like 

 at base, slender, wiry, and with the foliage pubescent or scabrous ; roots sparingly 

 tomentose : leaves 2 or rarely 3, the uppermost and longest 4 to 6 inches long by a 

 line wide, often setaceously pointed : panicle simple ; rays remote, soon horizontal, 

 1 - 6-flowered, the lower clustered and unequal ; spikelets 3 or 4 lines long, of 3 to 5 

 perfect florets, terete becoming somewhat zigzag, soon deciduous : glumes obtuse, 

 with wide scarious margins, 3 - 5-nerved, the upper a third larger, shorter than its 

 floret: lower palet 2 lines long, herbaceo-coriaceous, .strongly 7-nerved, only the 

 midnerve reaching the narrowly scarious apex ; upper palet slightly shorter, minutely 

 ciliate: sterile floret similar in texture. — Proc. Calif Acad. iv. 104. M. Geyeri, 

 Thurber, 1. c, 492, not Munro. Glycerla hulhosa, Buckley, Proc. Philad. Acad. 

 1862, 95 ; Gray, same, 335. 



In the Sierra Nevada from Lake Tahoe to Oregon ; Cascade Mountains, Pickering. Interme- 

 diate between Gh/ccria and Melica, and long ago referred by Nuttall to the former genus under 

 the uame which Buckley afterwards ])ublished as his own. Much of the confnsion among these 

 species has resulted from the failure of collectors to gather roots with their specimens. Lemmon s 

 excellent specimens show that in this species at least there is a contorted rootstock bearing the 

 bulbs and the remains of the growth of several years. 



§ 2. Spikelets of 3 to S perfrrf florrfs, the loiver exceeding the glumes: loiver 



palet prominently l-n,rr,',L o/u'ridate or distinctly aw ned by the excurrent 



midaenje at the notclird or bifid or narrowly truncate or rarely long- 



atteniuite tip. — Bromelica. 



Bromus-like grasses, with culms 2 to 5 feet high, all except the first with coarse fibrous roots 



and tomentose rootlets. Leaves flat, sometimes convolute above, and with the sheatlis scabrous 



or hairy ; ligule short, very thin and mostly lacerate. Panicle with erect or sometimes spreading 



very unequal remotely clustered few-flowered rays, the upper rays and spikelets mostly solitary. 



Lower palet more or less herbaceous or coriaceous and scariously margined. 



5. M. bromoides, Gray. Culms bulbous at base, very leafy : leaves sometimes 

 6 lines wide, the uppermost 1 or 2 inches long : spikelets about 8 lines long, of 

 4 or 5 perfect florets : glumes ovate, acutish, the upper often irregularly notched : 

 loAver palet 4 lines long, narrowly margined, minutely scabrous, lanceolate, acute, 

 with 2 narrow ciliate teeth, the three principal nerves running to the apex, the mid- 

 nerve ending as a point between the teeth or slightly prolonged ; upper palet one- 

 fourth shorter, minutelv 2-toothed, ciliate on the nerves. — Proc. Amer. Acad. viii. 

 409. M. Geyeri, Bolander, Proc. Calif. Acad. iv. 103, not Munro Ms. M. poceoides, 

 var. bromoides, of Bolander's distribution (n. 6119). 



In the Coast Eanges and Sierra Nevada from San Francisco and IMount Dana [Bolander) to 

 Oregon, IIowcll. Bolander states that the bulbs shrink greatly in drying and that when fresh 

 they are often an inch iu diametei-. As compared with the two other more or less awned species. 



