No. 25. 



MUHLENBERGIA DISTICHOPHYLLA Kunth. 



Rootstock not seen. Roots strong, branching rather early. 



Culms tufted, erect, 2* to 4 feet high, simple, glabrous, glaucous where not 

 sheathed, stout, rigid. 



Leaves of the stem 2 to 4; sheaths long, usually imbricated, not hairy, commonly 

 minutely roughened; blade 3 to 12 inches long, about 1 line wide, flat and keeled 

 or conduphcate, harsh, scabrous on the midrib and margins, glaucous green; ligule 

 membranaceous, narrow, long-acuminate, sometimes | inch long, fragile.' Root 

 leaves with sheaths mostly loose and compressed; sheaths sometimes 9 inches long 

 and the entire leaf exceeding 3 feet. 



Inflorescence paniculate. Panicle 8 to 18 inches long, erect, contracted- 

 branches numerous, seldom exceeding 3 inches, scabrous as well as the rachis. 



Spikelets polygamous, very numerous, borne singly on slender scabrous pedicels, 

 about 1 line long, linear-oblong, obtuse or acute. 



Glumes 3; first and second nearly equal, membranaceous, tawny, often purple at 

 the base, about 1 line long, slightly scabrous on the back, acute, or sometimes obtuse 

 and erose at the apex, 1-nerved, rarely with 2 rudimentary lateral nerves; third 

 (flowering) similar to the others, densely pilose below, with a strong middle nerve 

 and usually 2 indistinct ones on either side; middle nerve in the hermaphrodite 

 spikelets produced, from below the apex of the glume, into a slender, scabrous 

 terete, somewhat flexuous, purple awn 4 to 6 lines long; glume of the staminate 

 spikelets awnless. 



Flowers single in the spikelets. Palet of staminate flower thin, membranaceous, 

 lanceolate, with 2 very slender approximate nerves, slightly hairy on the back'; 

 stamens 3, anthers linear, nearly as long as the spikelets. Palet of hermaphrodite 

 flower similar to the other; stamens 3, anthers linear, nearly as long as the spike- 

 let; ovary globular, styles long, stamens cylindrical. 



Grain linear-oblong, brown, inclosed in the glume and palet; rachilla disarticu- 

 lating above the second glume. 



Plate XXV; 1, male plant; 2, hemaphrodite plant; a, staminate spikelet- h 

 first and second glumes of the same; c, third (flowering) glume, palet, and stamens 

 of the same; /, hermaphrodite flower; d, first and second glumes of the same; e, 

 third (flowering) glume, palet, and stigmas of the same. In the hermaphrodite 

 flower the stamens are not shown. 



A coarse, strongly rooted, perennial grass, perhaps having agricultural value. 

 It is one of the grasses called saccato. 



