No. 31. 
CHLORIS CUCULLATA Bischoff. 
Plant annual. 
Culms erect, at the base procumbent, 9 to 24 inches high, somewhat compressed 
or nearly terete, glabrous, branched only at the base. 
. Leaves of the root numerous ; sheaths 3 inches long or less, glabrous, compressed, 
glaucous, with conspicuous membranaceous margins, the outer loose; blades 1 to 
9 inches long, ? to 14 lines wide, usually longitudinally folded, glaucous, scabrous 
on the midrib margins and upper surface, apex abruptly acute or mucronate ; lig- 
ule about $ line long, membranaceous, minutely ciliate at the apex. Leaves of the 
stem 2 to 4, similar to those of the root; sheaths not contiguous, upper more.or 
less inflated ; blade of the uppermost leaf “Oren very small. 
. Inflorescence a more or less long-peduncled cluster of sessile spikes. Spikes 7 to 
16, 1 to 2 inches long; spikelets borne in 2 rows along one side of the slender, 
scabrous rachis, inserted in each row at intervals of about 2 line. 
Spikelet slightly less than 1 line long, of the form of an equilateral triangle. 
Glumes 4; first and second oblong-lanceolate, hyaline, 1-nerved, nerve green 
and usually glabrous, apex acute or obtuse, first about 4 line long, second 4 to 
line ; third (flowering) glunre compressed, 3-nerved, short-ciliate on the keel and 
intramarginal nerves, otherwise glabrous, bearing below the apex a minute scab- 
rous awn 4 line long, each half of the glume oval, bluntly acute at either end; 
fourth (sterile) glume compressed, glabrous, awned similarly to the third, 5- to 7- 
nerved, the lateral nerves distant from the middle nerve, each half of the glume 
wedge-truncate, as broad as long, apex and free margin involute. Rudiment of a 
fifth glume usually present. 
Flower single, hermaphrodite. Palet oval, 2-nerved, apex broadly notched, 
nerves ciliate, intramarginal, the narrow margins inflexed. Stamens 3; anthers 
ovate, sagittate, minute. Stigmas short, cylindrical. 
Grain oblong, acute at both ends, loosely inclosed in its glume and palet, upper 
portion of the spikelet falling away together, rachilla disarticulating above the 
second glume. 
PLATE XXXT; a and b, spikelet, the parts opened and the rachilla broken at the 
point of disarticulation. The flowering glume (to the left in b) should be ciliate on 
the back and the awn scabrous. The sterile glume (on the right in b) should be 
similarly awned, and the palet should be ciliate on the margins. 
ae 
