4 
No 13: 
CATHESTECUM ERECTUM Vasey & Hackel. 
Plant perennial. 
Roots slender. Rootstock none. 
Stems of two kinds, (1) runners and (2) erect culms. Runuers slender, with 
internodes few to several inches long, glabrous, arcuate, giving rise to a new plant 
at each node. Culms densely tufted below, many of them short and leafy, a few 
oo Mord slender, 6 to 10 inches high, glabrous. 
Lea the root numerous; sheath short, 4 to 1 inch long, glabrous, long- 
ciliate at dhe fae blade 3 inches or less long, about 4 line wide, scabrous on the 
margins, otherwise glabrous or rarely with afew long hairs; ligule minute, fim- 
briate. Leaves of the stems 2 or 3; sheaths about 1 inch long. distant, otherwise — 
like those of the root; blade from 1 nol long to almost wanting. 
Inflorescence racemose; spikelets in a raceme of 4 to 8 clusters; racemes slender- 
pedunculate, about 1 inch ‘bas single or 2 or 3 together from the appermost sheath; 
rachis very slender, flat, glabrous or slightly scabrous; clusters short- pedicellatel 
composed of 3 spikelets, middle spikelet shortpie elled, lateral nearly sessile. 
Glumes 4 to 6; first small, truncate-cuneate, empty, nearly nerveless; second 
empty, lanceolate, l-nerved; others subtending eee 4-lobed, 3-nerved, more 
or less scabrous on the ack, the nerves extending into a short scabrous awn 
between the lobes. é 
Flowers 3 to 4, hermaphrodite (?); palet lanceolate, 2-nerved, stamens 3, an- 
thers 1 to 14 lines long; pistils not detected; sterile prolongation of the rachilla 
-sometimes found at the apex of the spikelets. 
Grain not found. : 
PuaTE XIII; a, cluster of spikelets; b, first pinmin: c, second glume; d and e, 
two flowering glumes ; f, palet, from the back; g and h, palets, from the front; 
i, sterile prolongation of the rachilla; j, stamens and pistils; k, anther and 
upper portion of filament. 
This grass is found on the arid bluffs of the Rio Grande in Texas, and westward 
near the Mexican border as far as Sonora. It is too small to be of much economic 
importance. 
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en aseale 
