382 BOTAliT^. 



creeping; culms 1-1 J° high, branching at base, erect, slender, slightly scab- 

 rous, hairy at the nodes, with the leaves glaucous ; sheaths close, scabrous, 

 hairy at the throat, the stipule laciniate; leaves 1-6' long, mostly convolute, 

 rigid, scabrous, the upper ones short and pungent; spike 2-3' long, erect, the 

 internodes of the flexuous rachis shorter than the erect (4" long) spikelets ; 

 flowers short-pedicelled or nearly sessile in the glumes ; glumes of the perfect 

 spikelet ciliate, carinate, cleft nearly to the middle, the lobes 1-nerved on the 

 inner margin, with 3-5 intermediate bristles, the central one longer ; palets 

 exceeding the glumes, the lower 3-nerved, bifid at the apex, short-cuspidate, 

 the upper a little shorter, 2-nerved and slightly bifid ; scales linear, entire ; 

 glumes of the sterile spikelets equaling the palets, the lower ciliate, slightly 

 2-cleft, awned above the middle, the outer side 2-nerved, the inner margin 

 much narrower and infolded, the upper glame emarginate or erose, cuspidate 

 with a strong midnerve, the broader outer side also 2-3-nerved ; palets emar- 

 ginate or irregularly toothed at the apex, the lower 3-nerved, the upper 

 2-nerved. — The specimens diifer from the original description and figure in 

 having the palets less distinctly toothed and the glumes occasionally with but 

 3 bristles. Northern Texas and Indian Territory to New Mexico and West- 

 ern Arizona. Monitor Valley, Nevada, and on Carrington Island in Salt 

 Lake; 4,500-5,500 feet altitude ; June, July. (1,299.) 



Eremochloe ^ KiNGii. Very low and tufted, 1-3' high, nearly glabrous ; 



' EREMOCHLOE. Panicle short and contracted, simple or nearly so. Spikelets 4-flowered, the 

 two lower flowers neutral, the uppermost reduced to a stipitate villous triple awn. Glumes 2, membra- 

 nous, carinate, 1-nerved, acute, glabrous, rather exceeding the flowers, the lower a little the shorter. 

 Palets membranous, the lower 2-cleft to the middle, S-nerved, the nerves strongly villous, produced and 

 aristate, the middle one longest, the lobes in the neutral florets obtuse, in the perfect flower attenuate ; 

 upper palot shorter, bicarinate, 2-nerved, 2-lobed or 2-toothed at the apex, imperfectly developed in the 

 neutral florets. Stamens 2. Styles 2, the elongated stigmas very minutely hairy. Grain free, sessile, 

 obovate, smooth. — Low biennial desert grasses, with fibrous roots, the sheaths beaided at the throat and 

 often ciliate, the leaves short, rigid, revolute-setaceous, striate and pungent. 



Closely allied to the section Tnplasis of T)-wu8pis, but the neutral florets at the base of the spike- 

 lets, with the upper palet imperfectly developed, the nearly naked stigmas of the single perfect flower, 

 and the peculiar rudimentary terminal floret, seem sufficient grounds for its separation. An earlier known 

 species, first collected by Wright (2028) on the Eio Grande in Southern New Mexico, was afterwards col- 

 lected in the same region by Bigelow and recognized by Prof. Thurber as distinct from Triouspis, but has 

 remained hitherto unnamed and unpublished. A description and figure are appended. 



Eremochloe Bigelovii. Taller, 6-10' high, glabrous, the culms erect from a leafy branching 

 tufted base, naked with 2-3 approximate leaves below the panicle ; sheaths not ciliate; panicle subsim- 

 ple, i-V long; spikelets short-pedicelled, the flowers nearly as in E. Kingii; glumes 3" long, rather ob- 

 tuse ; lower palets of the neutral flowers slightly longer, (^" long,) the upper also longer, linear, with 

 short obtuse lobes ; lower flower with a delicate very narrowly linear scale (?) exceeding the upper palet ; 

 upper palet of the perfect flower rather narrower, with deeper acute entire lobes. Plate XL. Fig. 1. A 

 single stem ; natural size. Fig. 2. Glumes. Fig. 3. Neutral florets. Fig. 4. A lower palet. Fig. 5. Upper 

 palet of lower flower, with the elongated scale. Fig. 6. Upper palet of second flower. Fig. 7. Perfect 

 floret and terminal rudiment. Fig. 8. Upperpalet of perfect flower. Fig. 9. Mature seed ; all magnified 

 four diameters. 



