188 MR. NUTTALL’S DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW 
§. *TRAcHYcARPHA.—Spikelets many-flowered, secund, seated on the sides of a 
branching angular rachis. Glumes two, the upper minute. Palez two, the lower 
with a long awn and strongly ciliated on the margin. Caryopsis adhering to the 
upper palea. ; 
F. *meGcatura. Slender leaves and elongated, simple culm, smooth; panicle spiked, elongated, the 
branchlets angular and appressed; pales and their long awns very scabrous; uppermost floret of the 
spikelet abortive. 
Annual, slender below, more robust above, about eighteen inches high; spikelets 
so appressed as to appear blended together, erect, seated on a sharply angular rachis ; 
awn about three times the length of the palea, which is very strongly ciliated along 
the margin. 
Has. Santa Barbara, Upper California. 
MELICA.. 
M. *pantcorpEs. Panicle elongated, many-flowered, the flowers small and numerous ; glumes one- 
flowered, with a small, infertile rudiment ; palesze smooth, scarcely longer than the acute glumes. 
A smooth, rather slender grass, two to three feet high. Leaves linear and narrow, 
with long acuminated points ; ligule short, obtuse, membranous ; panicle eight to ten 
inches long, with several subdivided branchlets below, nearly simple above ; flowers 
searcely larger than those of Panicum virgatum, but with shining, yellowish glumes, 
and purple pales. The glumes lanceolate, ovate and acute, the lower:a little longer; 
pales ovate, rather acute, the neutral rudiment two-valved, white and small. 
Stamens three. Styles two. Stigmas white and complicated, plumose. Caryopsis 
obovate, sessile, free, with a flat basal impression or cicatrice. 
Has. Santa Barbara. Flowering in April. 
M. *pomorpEs. Panicle narrow, many-flowered, the spikelets erect ; spikelets with two flowers perfect, 
and a small rudiment extending beyond the acute glumes ; lower palea five nerved. 
Two to three feet high, smooth ; the leaves: narrow and rather short, with longish 
membranous lacerated stipules, a little hairy below. Panicle narrow and interrupted, 
several unequal branchlets from a joint. The spikelet parti-colored and a little 
shining as usual, but exceeding the glume it appears somewhat like a Poa. Lower 
glume acute, brownish at tip, with a broad yellowish membranous margin. Outer 
palea oblong-lanceolate, a little obtuse with a brownish tip. Stamens three. 
Stigmas plumose, short. 
Has. Island of Santa Catalina, California. 
