No. 23. 



CHLORIS SWARTZIANA Doll. (Chloris petrcea Swz. non. Thunb.) 

 (Schultesia petrcea Spreng.) (? Eustachys petrcea Desv.) 



Plant perennial, from short rootstock, light green or more or less purplish 

 throughout. 



Culm erect, or geniculate and spreading below, frequently branched, flatly 

 compressed, smooth, 1 to 2 feet tall. 



Leaves;' radical, with closely compressed, smooth, equitant, divergent sheaths, 

 and flat or folded blades, round-pointed, scabroiis on the edge, 2 lines wide, 4 to 

 10 inches long; of stem 3 to 5, sometimes opposite; sheaths compressed, loose, 

 smooth, shorter than internodes; lower blades like those of radical leaves but 

 shorter, and upper ones reduced to nearly none; ligule a minute, ciliate, membrana- 

 ceous fringe. 



Inflorescence a digitate cluster of 3 to 6 sessile, linear, erect, slightly spreading 

 spikes, 2 to 3 inches long, bearing the crowded sessile spikelets in two rows on one 

 side of the slender, scabrid rachis. 



Spikelets 2-flowered, upper flower sterile; first glume broadly ovate-acute, 

 smooth, 1-nerved, scarious, ^ line long; second glume obovate, 2 minutely toothed 

 lobes at apex and a short hispid awn formed by the excurrent nerve, hispid on back, 

 f to 1 line long; floral glume, rotund, broadly acute, or rounded and mucronate, 

 coriaceous, brown, ciliate, pubescent on the lower two-thirds of the single nerve, 

 smooth above; palet ovate-lanceolate, convex, obscurely 2-nerved, 1 line long; ster- 

 ile flower a broadly ovate, truncate glume, folded triangular, brown, \ line long. 



Grain translucent, creamy-white, triangular, -J- line long, falling with spikelet 

 intact except the empty glumes which are left on the rachis. 



Plate XXIII; a, spikelet; b, floral glume, sterile flower, stamens and stigmas; 

 c, second empty glume; d, first empty glume; palet not shown. 



Low grounds near the Gulf, from Florida westward to Texas. 



