No. 34. 

 TRIODIA ERAGROSTOtDES Vasey & Scrib. 



Plant annual or short-lived perennial, with slightly thickened base. 



Calms erect, branching, solid, terete, smooth, 2 to 3 feet tall. 



Leaves; radical, few; of culm 5 to 9, sheaths usually exceeding the internodes, 

 rather loose and open above, striate and slightly scabrous, blades flat or involute 

 toward the long tapering point, scabrous on both sides. 2 to 3 lines wide, to 10 

 inches long; ligule membranaceous, truncate, lacerate, tawny, 1 line long. 



Inflorescence a loose, spreading, lance-ovate, or pyramidal, erect or drooping 

 panicle 8 to 12 inches long; racnis angular, hispid near top, branches mostly 

 alternate, slender, scabrous only toward the extremities, sometimes reflexed at 

 maturity, 3 to 6 inches long, bearing the nearly solitary spikelets on slender, scab- 

 rous pedicels 1 to 3 lines long. 



Spikelets oblong-ovate, compressed, 7- to 9-flowered, 2 to 3 lines long; first 

 glume linear-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, 1-nerved, 1 line long; second glume 

 ovate-lanceolate, acuminate and longer; internodes of slender glabrous rachilla 

 articulating above, \ line long; floral glumes oblong, truncate or slightly 2-lobed. 

 mucronate, rounded on back, membranaceous, often purplish, pubescent near the 

 base on the 3 nerves, lateral nerves near the margins, 1 line long; palet lance- 

 oblong, truncate, minutely ciliate, membranaceous, smooth, 2-keeled, scarcely 1 

 line long. 



Grain oblong, angular, 2-horned at apex, opaque, brown, falling with spike- 

 let, usually disarticulate above empty glumes. 



Plate XXXIV; b, spikelet enlarged. 



Florida, Texas to Mexico. A large leafy grass which promises to be servicea- 

 ble in agriculture. 



