186. MR. NUTTALL’S DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW . 
The present genus is well distinguished by the free anthers, which are one-celled 
opening by wide pores near the summit; and by the total absence of the annular 
calyx and petals, the calyx being monophyllous, its base including the berry, and its 
three or four-toothed connivent border, which never opens, remaining persistent on 
the summit of the berry. 
In all the American species, the flowers are produced with the ripening of the 
berry on the lower part of the stem, so that their growth continues for the whole 
year. The flowers, very minute, are usually sessile or partly immersed in the rachis 
of a cylindric spike, which resembles a catkin, but differs in having the flowers 
disposed in interrupted clusters; these spikes come out several from the same axil; 
the inflorescence is never terminal. | 
*CALYCODON. 
| Spikelets one-flowered, the flower sessile, bearded at the base. Glumes two, 
unequal, shorter than the flower, membranaceous, the lower truncate, acutely three- 
toothed ; the lower smaller, one-toothed. Palex two, the lower sublanceolate, carinate, 
terminating in a longish scabrous awn; at length indurated, with a silky pilose 
margin; the upper palea lanceolate, one-nerved, indurated and involute. Anthers 
three. Stigmas two, plumose.—A scabrous leaved grass, with a simple inarticulated 
culm, terminated by a loose, narrow, somewhat spiked panicle. So called in allusion 
to the remarkable toothing of the calyx. 
C. *monTanum. Leaves short and narrow, somewhat scabrous; ligules membranaceous, elongated ; panicles 
four or five inches long, narrow, with the branches appressed; flowers clustered on the branches, 
three or four together, some nearly sessile and others pedicellate ; glumes variable, membranaceous and 
eroded at the summit, the lower three-nerved, with three either short, or rather long and acute teeth, 
sometimes with a fourth membranous tooth ; the upper glume also eroded, and ending in a single tooth © 
from the nerve; the lower palea lanceolate, carinate, scabrous, and indurated, terminated by a long, 
slender, scabrous awn; the inner margin silky, with soft shining hair, of which there are two tufts at 
the base of the pale; the inner palew also indurated and herbaceous in the centre, involving the 
germ and stamens. 
A perennial grass, with a simple, unjointed culm, about eighteen inches high. 
Somewhat allied to Muhlenbergia, (when restrained to its proper limits,) but perfectly 
distinct by its very remarkable glumes. The ripe seed we have not seen. 
_ Has. In the Rocky Mountains, near Santa Fé, Mexico. Flowering in August. 
MUHLENBERGIA. 
M. (§. TRicHocuoa) *purpureA. Annual, dwarf; much branched from the base and many-jointed ; glumes 
very short and obtuse; palea and awns purple, the latter capillary, many times longer than the palea, 
the inner one acute and shortly awned. 
