123 





Fig. 92. Orcuttia caiifomica Vasey.— a, A spikelet showing the lower empty 

 glumes, a portion of the rachilla, and a number of the upper florets; b, a portion of 

 a spikelet; e, dorsal view of the expanded flowering glume; d, palea. Fig. 503, 

 Bui. 17, illustrates anothei grass referred to this genus. 



92. ORCUTTIA Vasey, Bui. Torr. Bot. Club 13 : 219, pi. 16. 1886. Spikelets 

 many-flowered, compressed, sessile, crowded in short terminal spikes, the low- 

 ermost spikelet often remote; rachilla articulated above the empty glumes 

 and between the florets. Two lower glumes empty, nearly equal, broadly lanceo- 

 late, irregularly 2- to 5 -toothed, shorter than the flowering glume; flowering 

 glumes oblong, many-nerved, 5-toothed or 5-cleft at the broad apex, the princi- 

 pal nerves extending into the divisions. Palea 2-nerved, 2-keeled, about as 

 long as the flowering glumes. Stamens 3. Styles long, distinct; stigmas short, 

 plumose. Grain free within the glumes. Low csespitose annuals, with short 

 leaves and rather large many-flowered spikelets. 



Species 2, Southern and Lower California. 



