100 BULLETI>J VII. 1. 



3. Eatonia Dudley! Vasey. 



Plate XXXIV. Figure 135. 



A slender, erect perennial, one to two feet high, with short flat 

 leaves and nodding panicle. Sheaths smooth or pubescent, usually 

 shorter than the internodes; ligule less than one line long; leaf- 

 blade one to two lines wide, two to four inches long, smooth or 

 pubescent, those of the upper nodes shorter, often less than one 

 inch long. Panicle slender, three to eight inches long, the 

 branches widely spreading in flowering. Spikelets a little over a 

 line long; lower empty glume broadly linear, mostly rounded at 

 the apex, often almost equalling the upper in width; upper empty 

 glume obovate, obtuse, smooth, except on the midnerve above, one- 

 fourth shorter than the spikelet; flowering glume rather acute,, 

 that of the upper flower minutely verrucose. 



Open dry woods, over the State. April — May. 



4. Eatonia obtusata. 



Plate XXXIV. Figure 134. 



A tufted perennial, one and a half to two feet high, with flat 

 leaves and rather densely-flowered nodding panicles. Sheaths 

 smooth or pubescent, longer or shorter than the internodes; ligule 

 about one line long; leaf-blade three to four lines wide, four to six 

 inches long, scabrous on both sides and often downy. Panicle 

 densely flowered, three to four inches long. Spikelets a little over 

 one line long, two- to three-flowered; lower empty glume narrowly 

 linear, cristate, one-nerved, about one line long, the upper of 

 equal length, very broadly obovate, three-nerved, hispid on the 

 dorsal surface; flowering glume oblong, carinate, hispid on the 

 keel above. 



The form with pubescent sheaths [Avena mollis Michx.) is that 

 which is most common. This is the E. obtusata var. laxiflora of 

 Gattinger's Tennessee Flora. 



48. MELICA Linn. Sp. PI. (i(> (i753-) 



Spikelets two to several-flowered, terete or slightly flattened, in 

 simple racemose, or more or less compound, narrow or dense pani- 

 cles; rachilla articulated above the empty glumes and between the 

 fertile florets, usually bearing two or three empty, often club- 

 shaped or cucullate glumes at the apex. Empty glumes at the 

 base of the spikelet two, unequal, membranaceous, awnless, three- 

 to five-nerved. Flowering glumes larger, rounded on the back, 

 seven- to thirteen-nerved, margins scarious, awnless or short- 

 awned. Palea broad, two-keeled, shorter than the glume. Stamens 

 three. Styles distinct, stigmas plumose. Grain free. 



Perennials, with usually soft, flat leaves, rather large spikelets 

 in lax or dense, usually narrow panicles, sometimes simply race- 

 mose. 



Species thirty or more, throughout the temperate zones. Some 

 eighteen species belong to the United States, chiefly in the Rocky 

 Mountain and Pacific Coast regions. One in Tennessee. 



