CeratoMon. GRAMINEJ^:. 321 



56. CERATOCHLOA, Beauv. 

 Panicle open, with long mostly few-flowered branches. Spikelets several-flow- 

 ered, much flattened. Glumes compressed-keeled, acute, shorter than the florets. 

 Lower palet flattened, with a sharply compressetl keel and a prominent callus below, 

 several-nerved, and short-awned from the nearly entire tip. Upper palet nearly 

 equal, strongly 2-nerved. Stamens 3, sometimes minute. Scales oval, acuminate. 

 Ovary crowned by a hairy 3-lobed or 3-horned appendage : styles short, attached to 

 the base of the appendage ; stigmas plumose. Grain oblong, deeply furrowed, adnate 

 to the palet. 



A small American genus of tall coarse grasses, separated from B ramus by the mucli flattened 

 entire palets and the 3-lobed tip to the ovary. Our species are usually found growing in dry 

 places and appear to be perennial. 



1. C. grandiflora, Hook. Culms 2 to 3 feet high, slender : culm-leaves nar- 

 rowly linear, wider than those of the radical tufts ; sheaths smooth, densely ciliate 

 at least at the throat, or hirsute: panicle very loose and simple, the lower and remote 

 cluster of 5 capillary rays unequal, flexuose-spreading, 1 - 2-flowered, the upper rays 

 suberect; spikelets 6 - 10-flowered ; florets rather distant, spreading: glumes very 

 acute, slightly unequal, over half as long as the lowest florets, the lower 5-nerved, 

 the upper 9-nerved : lower palet compressed-keeled, narrowed below to a short 

 sparingly hairy callus, scabrous or strongly pubescent, 9-nerved, 8 or 9 lines long, 

 very acute, with an awn half its length ; the upper strongly ciliate, nearly equalling 

 the lower, acuminately bifld. — Flor. Bor. Am. ii. 253, t. 235. Bromus virens, Buckl. 

 in Proc. Phil. Acad. 1862, 98 ; Gray in same, 336. B. Hookerianus, Thurber, Bot. 

 Wilkes Exped. 493. 



San Francisco and elsewhere {Bolandcr) ; northward to Oregon (Pickering), and Washington 

 Territory, Cooper. Bolauder's specimens appear to be the typical plant of Hooker. The species 

 varies greatly as to its pubescence on both foliage and panicle. In some plants of the same set 

 the panicle has shorter and erect branches, while some have the lower rays not only spreading 

 but reflexed. Hooker refers to a sort of dicecious character presented by this species. In a 

 majority of the specimens examined the anthers are ovoid and minute, only J of a line long, while 

 the ovary is 3 lines, its hairy crown being a fifth as long. In the specimens with well-developed 

 anthers these are over 2 lines long and the ovary but | of a line, with a hauy crown as long as 

 before. In one case well-developed anthers and an apparently perfect ovary were found in the 

 same floret. Field observations would show how far these points are related to other diff'erences 

 presented by this species. 



2. C. breviaristata, Hook. Culm 2 to 3 feet high: leaves broadly linear, 

 acuminate, with the sheaths rough-pubescent or hairy : panicle nearly simple, its 

 rays in clusters of 2 to 5, erect or slightly drooping to one side ; spikelets about 

 6 -flowered, pale green, close, suberect : glumes subequal, the lower 5-nerved, the 

 upper 9-nerved, more than half as long as the florets : lower palet 9-nerved, mostly 

 densely pubescent, and short-awned from the usually minutely 2-toothed tip ; 

 upper palet shorter than the lower, ciliate, shortly 2-toothed. — Flor. Bor.-Am. ii. 253, 

 t. 234. B ramus breviaristatus, Thurber, Bot. Wilkes Exped. 493 ; Watson, Bot. 

 King Exp. 389. 



Sierra Nevada (Lemmon), and common in the mountains of Nevada ( IVatson) ; northward to 

 Oregon {Pickering), and Washington Territory, Cooper. Very variable as to pubescence of foliage, 

 but in all the specimens the palets are closely and evenly clothed with appressed hairs, wliich are 

 longer near the base. Distinguished from any erect panicled form of the last by its fewer flowered 

 closely imbricated spikelets and the awn shorter in proportion. The specimens show Tuinute 

 anthers as mentioned under C. grandiflora, but none with long anthers have been noticed. Bronnts 

 carinatus. Hook. & Arn. Bot. Beechey, 403, is described as having its glumes 3 -5-nerved and its 

 j)alets 7-nerved; but as in this genus this is a character in wliich spikelets from the same speci- 

 men may vary, it seems probable that the species was founded upon a form of one or the other 

 of the preceding with fewer nerves than usual. B, carinatus in Herb. Torrey, from Hooker, is 

 very young, and not to be recognized as distinct from this species. 



