127 





Fig. 96. Blepharidachne kingli (S. Wats.) Hackel. (Eremochloe kingn S. Wats.) 

 KINGS DESERT-GRASS.— a, The empty glumes of a spikelet; b, a spikelet with 

 the empty glumes removed; c, flowering glume; d and e, palea. 



96. BLEPHARIDACHNE Hack, in Engl. & Prantl. Pflanzenfamilien 2 2 : 126. 

 1887. Spikelets with 1 hermaphrodite flower. Lower empty glumes 4, the 1st 

 pair membranaceous, acute, slightly unequal, 1-nerved; the 2d pair 3-nerved, 

 3-lobed,the middle division aristiform; the fertile glume strongly compressed; 

 3-nerved, 3-cleft, the nerves produced into slender awns, which are more or less 

 plumose; the terminal floret reduced to an empty glume or 3 awns. Stamens 

 3. Styles distinct; stigmas plumose. Grain terete or slightly compressed on 

 the back, included within the fruiting glume and palea, free. Low, densely 

 csespitose, perennial grasses with crowded, rigid leaves, and small, terminal 

 densely-flowered panicles. 



Species 2, in the desert regions of Nevada and Arizona. 



