366 APPENDIX. 
voribus. Between the Tejon Pass and the Lost Hills of California. This grass is not uncom- 
mon in New Mexico and western Texas, where it is used by the natives for stuffing pads for 
loaded mules, its soft thread-like culms making it admirably fit for this purpose. Mr. Blake's 
specimens are nearly two feet long, which is twice its usual length. In the young flowers the 
glumes are scarcely one-third the length of the paleæ, but at maturity, they are commonly one- 
half their length. It belongs to a group of the genus that includes V. Virginica, Linn. and V. 
Matrella, Nees. It is also nearly related to V. humifusa, Hook., but that has unequal glumes, 
the upper one nearly as long as the palew, or sometimes one-third shorter. No. 958, of Fend- 
ler's New Mexican collection, and No. 1983, of Wright's, are thesame as the Californian plant, 
differing only in the more rigid leaves, and somewhat more acute pales. 
Another, and apparently new, Vilfa was found by Mr. Blake, at the head of Tulare Valley, 
but his specimens are rather imperfect, and we defer giving it a name for the present. It is 
an erect grass, about six feet high, simple, with narrow, convolute leaves, and scabrous sheaths. 
The panicle is two feet long, and much contracted. The spikelets are lanceolate, and nearly 
terete, scabrous under a lens. Glumes equal, rounded on the back, one-fourth shorter than the 
lanceolate, rather acute pales; the inferior paleæ a little hairy at the base. No. 1993, of 
Wright’s collection, is near this species, but it differs in the glabrous flowers, and the palew a 
little shorter than the glumes, without any hairiness at the base. 
Potypocon MowsPELIENSIS, Desf. Var.? MONOLEPIS: palea inferiore setam infra apicem exserente 
glumis duplo longiorem, superiore nulla. Pos& Creek, Walker's Pass; August. Culm terete, 
simple. Leaves flat, and with the sheaths puberulous; ligule oblong. Panicle oblong, dense 
and spiciform, somewhat interrupted. Glumes equal, acuminate, and cuspidate; serrulate on 
the keel. Inferior palea scarcely more than half as long as the glumes, 4-toothed at the sum- 
mit, with an awn arising above the middle of the back nearly twice the length of the glumes ; 
the upper palea wanting, or extremely minute. If the characters here given prove to be con- 
stant, this is probably a distinct species from P. Monspeliensis. 
MUHLENBERGIA DIFFUSA, Schreb. Gram. 2, t. 51. Var. aristis multo longioribus. Tulare Valley. 
Perhaps a distinct species. 
ERIOCOMA CUSPIDATA, Nutt. Gen. 1, p. 30. Urachne lanata, Trin. Act. Petrop. 1834, p. 126. 
“ Grows in bunches, on plains; October." Mr. Blake has not recorded the precise station of 
this grass, but we have never received it before from any part of California. 
ARISTIDA HUMBOLDTIANA, Trin. e Rupr. Stip. p. 118? Head of Tulare Valley, California ; 
September. Culm apparently tall, glabrous; sheaths smooth, hairy at the throat. Panicle 
erect, pyramidal, about a foot long, the branches solitary, in pairs, or semiverticillate ; the 
divisions appressed and racemose. Glumes slightly unequal ; the lower one about 4 lines long, 
the upper 4 a line longer, cuspidate. Palew a little exceeding the glumes. Lateral sete as 
long as the flowers, the central somewhat longer, equally spreading, straight. We are by no 
means confident that the species is correctly determined. 
BOUTELUNA (CHONDROSIUM) POLYSTACHYA, Benth. Bot. Sulph. p. 56; Torr. in Emory's Hep. P- 
153. Hill-sides, on the Colorado, and in the desert west. There are usually 4 or 5 spikes, but 
sometimes only 3. At each joint of the spikes there are two kinds of spikelets; the lower one: 
1-flowered ; the upper sesquiflorous. The rudimentary flower is sometimes reduced to 3 awns, 
with a tuft of hairs at their common base. (Tab. X.) 
` Meeastacnya—near M. conferta (Poa conferta, EU.) Kern River, Tule; August. Den 
2-3 feet high. Leaves narrow, convolute when old, glabrous, as is also the sheath. Panicle 
PIENE RE NUN ei auge 
EN 
