366 APPENDIX. 



voribus. Between the Tejon Pass and the Lost Hills of California. This grass is not uncom- 

 mon in New Mexico and western Texas, where it is used hy the natives for stuffing pads for 

 loaded mules, its soft thread-like culms making it admirably fit for this purpose. Mr. Blake's 

 specimens are nearly two feet long, which is twice its usual length. In the young flowers the 

 glumes are scarcely one-third the length of the paleae^ but at maturity, they are commonly one- 

 half their length. It belongs to a group of the genus that includes V. Virginica, Linn, and V. 

 Matrella, Nees. It is also nearly related to V. humifusa, Ilooh., but that has unequal glumes, 

 the upper one nearly as long as the paleaa, or sometimes one-third shorter. No. 958, of Fend- 

 ler's New Mexican collection, and No. 1983, of Wright's, are the same as the Californian plant, 

 differing only in the more rigid leaves, and somewhat more acute palese. 



Another, and apparently new, Vilfa was found by Mr. Blake, at the head of Tulare Valley, 

 but his specimens are rather imperfect, and we defer giving it a name for the present. It is 

 an erect grass, about six feet high, simple, with narrow, convolute leaves, and scabrous sheaths. 

 The panicle is two feet long, and much contracted. The spikelets are lanceolate, and nearly 

 terete, scabrous under a lens. Glumes equal, rounded on the back, one-fourth shorter than the 

 lanceolate, rather acute paleaa ; the inferior paleaj a little hairy at the base. No. 1993, of 

 Wright's collection, is near this species, but it differs in the glabrous flowers, and the paleee a 

 little shorter than the glumes, without any hairiness at the base. 



PoLYPOGON MoNSPELiENSis, Desf. Var. ? MONOLEPis: palea inferiore setam infra apicem exserente 

 glumis duplolongiorem, superiore nulla. Pose Creek, Walker's Pass; August. Culm terete, 

 simple. Leaves flat, and with the sheaths puberulous ; ligule oblong. Panicle oblong, dense 

 and spiciform, somewhat interrupted. Glumes equal, acuminate, and cuspidate ; serrulate on 

 the keel. Inferior palea scarcely more than half as long as the glumes, 4-toothed at the sum- 

 mit, with an awn arising above the middle of the back nearly twice the length of the glumes ; 

 the upper palea wanting, or extremely minute. If the characters here given prove to be con- 

 stant, this is probably a distinct species from P. Monspeliensis. 



MuHLENBERGiA DIFFUSA, Sclireb. Gram. 2, t. 51. Var. aristis multo longioribus. Tulare Valley. 

 Perhaps a distinct species. 



Eriocoma cuspidata, Nutt. Gen. 1, p. 30. Urachne lanata, Trin. Act. Petrop. 1834, p. 126. 

 "Grows in bunches, on plains; October." Mr. Blake has not recorded the precise station of 

 this o-rass, but we have never received it before from any part of California. 



Aristida Humboldtiana, Trin. & Rupr. Slip. p. 118? Head of Tulare Valley, California; 

 September. Culm apparently tall, glabrous ; sheaths smooth, hairy at the throat. Panicle 

 erect, pyramidal, about a foot long, the branches solitary, in jiairs, or semiverticillate ; the 

 divisions appressed and racemose. Glumes slightly unequal ; the lower one about 4 lines long, 

 the upper | a line longer, cuspidate. Palete a little exceeding the glumes. Lateral^ setae as 

 long as the flowers, the central somewhat longer, equally spreading, straight. We are by no 

 means confident that the species is correctly determined. 



BouTELUNA (Chondrosium) polystachya, Bentli. Bot. Sulph. p. 56 ; Torr. in Emory's Rep. p. 

 153. Hill-sides, on the Colorado, and in the desert west. There are usually 4 or 5 spikes, but 

 sometimes only 3. At each joint of the spikes there are two kinds of spikelets ; the lower one 

 1-flowered ; the upper sesquiflorous. The rudimentary flower is sometimes reduced to 3 awns, 

 with a tuft of hairs at their common base. (Tub. X.) 



Megastachya — near M. conferta (Poa conferta, Ell.) Kern River, Tule ; August. Culm 

 2-3 feet high. Leaves narrow, convolute when old, glabrous, as is also the sheath. Panicle 



