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 bj 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. Palese 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 palese; the inner paleae 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 Muhlenhergia, (when restrained to its proper limits,) but perfectly 

 distinct by its very remarkable glumes. The ripe seed we have not seen. 



Hab. In the Rocky Mountains, near Santa Fe, Mexico. Flowering in August. 



MUHLENBERGIA. 



M. (§. Trichochloa) *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. 



