Fo. 1. 

 ERIOCHLOA SERICEA Munro. 



Roofs long, unbranched, but giving off a few fibrillar 



Culms tufted, simple, % to 3 fee, high, .stiffly erect, slender, striate, short- 

 villous at the nodes and sparingly minutely hairy where not sheathed. 



Radical leaves numerous, to 12 inches long, erect, flat or involute, striate, 

 minutely pubescent or glabrous, £ tc 1 line broad, the sheaths free. Cauline 

 leaves 3 or 4; sheaths contiguous or marly so, striate, minutely pubescent or gla- 

 brous, villous at the apex; iigule i row of dense straight hairs; blades like 

 those of the root-leaves, spreading, 3 to 9 inches long, uppermost often shorter. 



Inflorescence a racemose compound spike, the peduncle usually exserted from 

 the uppermost sheath; axis minutely pubescent; spikes 4 to 7, sessile or the lower 

 short-peduncled, erect, contiguous, or nearly so, f to H inches long. 



Sjiikeiets elliptical-oblong, acute, depressed, l-j-to 2 lines long, imbricated (one- 

 half their length) in 2 rows along tie outer side of the flat rachis of the spike, 

 each sessile on an annular swelling of the apex of a short, long-villous pedicel 

 (about as broad as long), hairs equaling the spikelet. 



Glumes 3; outer 2 equal, membranaceous, inclosing the rest of the spikelet, 

 ovate, oblong, acute, 5-nerved, villous without; flowering glume glabrous, tliick- 

 ened-coriaceous, minutely rugose, elliptical-oblong and acute, rounded on the 

 back. 



Flower single, hermaphrodite. Palet similar in texture to the flowering 

 glume. 2-nerved. flat on the back. Stamens 3, the anthers two-thirds as long as 

 the palet. Stigmas 2, fimbriate, purple, nearly one-half the length of the palet. 

 on slender styles. 



Plate I; a, spikelet opened so as to show the glumes, palet, pistil, and sta- 

 mens. In the figure the flowering glume is too much narrowed toward the apex, 

 the palet is not represented as flat on the back, and the stigmas and anthers are 

 too short. 



This species seems to be principally confined to western Texas and New Mex- 

 ico, extending northward into the Indian Territory. It affords a considerable 

 qiiantity of foliage, is perennial, an.1 should be tried with reference to its agri- 

 cultural value. 



HITCHCOCK AND CHASE LIBRARY 

 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



