736 GRAMINE^E eleusine 



STIPA 



prairies, Washington to California and Wisconsin. 



20 ELEUSINE Gaertn. Fruct. et Sem. i, 7. 



Tufted annual or perennial grasses with flat leaves and spicate 

 inflorescence, the spikes digitate or close together at the summit 

 of the stem. Spikelets several-flowered, sessile, closely imbricat- 

 ed in two rows on one side of the rachis, which is not extended 

 beyond them. Flowers all perfect, or the upper staminate. 

 Glumes compressed, keeled, the two lower empty, the others sub- 

 tending flowers or the upper empty. Stamens 3. Styles distinct, 

 with plumose stigmas. Grain loosely enclosed in the glume. 



E. Indica Gaertn. 1. c. Stems 6-12 inches long, tufted, erect or decum- 

 bent, glabrous: sheaths loose, longer than the internodes, often crowded at 

 the base of the stem, glabrous sometimes sparingly villous : ligules very 

 short : leaves 3-12 inches long, 1-3 lines wide, smooth or scabrous : spikes 2- 

 10, 1-3 inches long, whorled or approximate at the summit of the stems or one 

 or two sometimes distant: spikelets 3-6-flowered, 1%-Z lines long: glumes 

 acute minutely scabrous on the keel, the first 1-nerved, the second 3-7- 

 nerved, the others 3-5-nerved. In fields and waste places, naturalized 

 from Europe. 



Tribe 3 Stipaceae. Spikelets strictly 1-flowered. Flowers with a 

 sharp pointed callus, deciduous. Flowering glume enfolding the palet 

 and grain y coriaceous and indurated in fruit, and terminated by a 

 simple or triple awn. 



21 STIPA L. Sp. 78. 



Mostly tall grasses with usually convolute leaves and paniculate 

 inflorescence. Panicle open, with a few spreading branches, or 

 sometimes crowded and narrower spikelets 1-flowered, the cylin- 

 drical flower with an obconic bearded and often elongated sharp- 

 pointed base. Glumes subequal, membranous, often terminated 

 by a long subulate point. Flowering glume coriaceous, cylindri- 

 cal-involute, enclosing the mostly shorter palet, entire at the apex 

 or terminating in 2 minute sometimes hyaline teeth, nake d or with 

 a crown of short hairs, conspicuously awned. Awn articulated 

 with the glume, often caducous, geniculate below, glabrous or pu- 

 bescent, or plumose with spreading hairs. Stamens usually 3. 

 Styles short, distinct: stigmas plumose with simple hairs. Grain 

 cylindrical, smooth, free, enclosed in the glume. 



S. occidentalis Thurber Bot. Wilkes 483. Stems slender 1-2 feet high, 

 somewhat scabrous, pubescent at the nodes: sheaths close, hispid, shorter 

 than the internodes: ligules 2-2)^ lines long, lacerate at the apex: leaves 

 filiform, convolute, sharp pointed, hispid, 2-12 inches long: panicle slen- 

 der, 3-4 inches long, often included at the base, its branches mostly in 

 twos, erect, 1-2 inches long: spikelets lanceolate, turgid, 4-6, lines long: 

 empty glumes appressed, lanceolate, acute, thin, purplish below, smooth, 

 the first one obscurely 5-7-nerved at base, 5-6 lines long, the second about 

 1 line shorter, 3-nerved : stipe obconical, acute, pubescent,)^ line long: 

 flowering glumes thin-chartaceous, pubescent, plainly 5-nerved: awn artic- 

 ulated, persistent, flattened, twisted, l>£-2 inches long, bent near the mid- 

 dle, the lower half plumose: palet oblong, 2-2j^ lines long, pubescent on 

 the back and obtuse apex. Common in the mountains, central California 



