78 BULLETIN 772, JJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The three species are found in sandy soil in the Eastern States, 

 Triplasis purpivrea (fig. 36) from Maine to Florida and from the 

 Great Lakes to Texas. Triplasis intermedia is confined to Florida ; 

 T. americana is found from North Carolina to Florida. All the spe- 

 cies, besides the small panicles of cleistogamous spikelets in the upper 

 sheaths, have additional cleistogamous spikelets, reduced to a single 

 large floret, at the bases of the lower sheaths. The culms break at 

 the nodes bearing these cleistogenes, the ripe seed remaining attached 

 to the internode. The species are of no importance except as they 

 tend to hold sandy soil. 



For a revision of the species of Triplasis, see Nash, Bull. Torrey 

 Club 25:561-565. 1898. 



28. BLEPHAKIDACHNE Hack. 



Spikelets 4-flowered, the rachilla disarticulating above the glumes 

 but not between the florets; glumes nearly equal, about as long as 

 the spikelet, compressed, 1-nerved, thin, acuminate, smooth; lemmas 

 deeply 3-lobed, 3-nerved, the first and second sterile, containing a 

 palea but no flower, the third fertile, the fourth reduced to a 3-awned 

 rudiment. 



Low annuals or perennials, with short, congested, few-flowered 

 panicles scarcely exserted from the subtending leaves. Species two ; 

 one in Argentina, one in Nevada. 



Type species: Eremochloe kingii S. Wats. 



Eremochloe S. Wats., in King, Geol. Expl. 40th Par. 382, pi. 40, 1871, not 

 Eremochloa Biise, 1854. Two species are described, one E. kingii from Nevada 

 and the other, in a footnote, E. bigelovii, from southern New Mexico. The two 

 specimens are to be referred to the same species. 



Blepharidachne Hack., in Engl. and Prantl, Pflanzenf am. 2 2 : 126. 1887. In a 

 footnote the name Blepharidachne is substituted for Eremochloe S. Wats., 

 because of the earlier Eremochloa Biise. The author of Blepharidachne is given 

 as " Hook.," a typographical error for Hack. 



Blepharidachne Jcingii (S. Wats.) Hack. (fig. 37), found on the 

 plains and foothills of Nevada (and New Mexico according to 

 Watson), has been collected only a few times. 



A second species, Blepharidachne benthamiana (Hack.) Hitchc. 

 (Munroa benthamiana Hack. 1 ) grows in dry regions of Argentina. 

 In habit it resembles our Munroa squarrosa, but in floral structure it 

 agrees with Blepharidachne, having two sterile florets, one fertile 

 floret, and a 3-awned rudiment. 



29. OECTJTTIA Vasey. 



Spikelets several-flowered, the upper florets reduced; rachilla per- 

 sistent, continuous, the florets falling away or tardily disarticulating ; 

 glumes nearly equal, shorter than the lemmas, broad, irregularly 2 to 5 



1 In Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 3 2 : 357. 1898. 



