70 



one-nerved, thin, about equalling the spikelet, flowering glume 

 stalked, oblong, chartaceous, five-nerved, bifid, and emitting between 

 the teeth a slender awn ; sterile spikelets slender, with ten to twelve 

 distinct, broadly-obtuse, empty glnines above the two lower, much 

 longer, linear, acute ones. 

 1. L. aurea, Moench. Introduced. California. 



Kcelekia, Pers. 



Spikelets three to five flowered, compressed, numerous in a dense, 

 spike-like cylindrical or interrupted panicle ; outer glumes mem- 

 branaceous, keeled, unequal, lanceolate, about as long as the spike- 

 let, scarious on the margin ; flowering glumes similar, more scarious 

 or hyaline, rarely raucronate, the upper one usually smaller and im- 

 perfect; palet very thin, acutely two-keeled, two-toothed. 

 1. K. cristata, Pers. Common. Pennsylvania to Rocky Moun- 

 tains, California, Oregon, &c. 



This grass has a very wide diffusion both in this country and in 

 Europe and Asia. It favors dry hills or sandy prairies, and on the 

 great plains is one of the commonest species. It occurs throughout 

 California and into Oregon. It varies much in appearance, accord- 

 ing to the location in which it grows, these variations being so strik- 

 ing that they have been considered different species, and perhaps 

 two species ought to be admitted. It is perennial, with erect culms 

 usually from 1 to 2 feet high, and a spike-like panicle varying from 

 3 to- 6 inches in length, and more or less interrupted or lobed at the 

 lower part. When grown in very arid places the culms may be 

 only a foot high, the radical leaves short, and the panicle only 2 

 inches long. When grown in more favored situations the radical 

 leaves are 18 inches long, the stem 3 feet, and the panicle 6 inches 

 long. The branches of the panicle are, in short, nearly sessile clus- 

 ters, crowded above, looser and interrupted below. The spikelets 

 are from two to four flowered. On the prairies west of the Missis- 

 sippi it is one of the commonest and most useful of the grasses. 

 In Montana it is sometimes called June grass. 



Eatonia, Raf. 



Spikelets usually two-flowered and with an abortive rudiment or 

 pedicel, numerous, in a contracted or slender panicle, very smooth ; 

 outer glumes unequal, the lower narrowly linear, keeled, one-nerved,. 



