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. Palese two, the lower 

 with a long awn and strongly ciliated on the margin. Caryopsis adhering to the 

 upper palea. 



F. *MEGALURA. Slender leaves and elongated, simple culm, smooth ; panicle spiked, elongated, the 

 branchlets angular and appressed ; paleae 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. 



Hab. Santa Barbara, Upper California. 



MELICA. 



M. *PANicoiDES. Panicle elongated, many-flowered, the ' flowers small and numerous ; glumes one- 

 flowered, with a small, infertile rudiment ; paleae 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 

 scarcely larger than those of Panicum virgatum, but with shining, yellowish glumes, 

 and purple palese. The glumes lanceolate, ovate and acute, the lower a little longer ; 

 paleae 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. 



Hab. Santa Barbara, Flowering in April. 



M. *po^oiDEs. Panicle narrow, many-flovi'ered, 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-coloured 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. 



Hab. Island of Santa Catalina, California. 



