No. 15. 

 LYCURUS PHLEOIDES H. B. K. 



Plant perennial from thickened, slightly bulbous base. 



Culms tufted, erect or ascending, rather weak, branching, solid, nearly terete, 

 smooth, 1 to 2 feet tall. 



Leaves; radical numerous, with short, close sheaths and flat, folded or invo- 

 lute blades 1 to 2 inches long, with white margins and midrib; of culm 4 or 5; 

 sheaths much shorter than internodes, loose and open, smooth; blades like those 

 of radical leaves but longer; ligule membranaceous, ovate, acute, oblique, decur- 

 rent on one side, 1 line long. 



Inflorescence a dense, cylindrical spike i inch in diameter, 2 to 3 inches long. 



Spikelets 1 to 3 on each of the short branches of the rachis, one or two of 

 which are commonly imperfect; first glume oblong, thin, 2-nerved, i to f line long, 

 terminating in 2 or (rarely) 3, unequal, hispid awns, 1 to 3 lines long; second glume 

 ovate, acute, carinate, membranaceous, 1-nerved, f to 1 line long, terminating in 

 an awn 2 to 3 lines long; floral glume lanceolate-oblong, acute, pubescent through- 

 out, thicker than the empty glumes, 3-nerved, If to 2 lines long, terminating in a 

 hispid awn 1-J to 2 lines long; palet lanceolate, 2-toothed at apex, rounded, 2-nerved, 

 thinly pubescent, 1| lines long; the flowers are subject to the attack of an insect, 

 which renders the palet inflated and hardened below. 



Grain narrowly lanceolate or linear, yellow, i line long. 



Plate XV; A, perfect spikelet, with abortive spikelet below; a, spikelet with 

 the palet distorted; b, first empty glume; c, second empty glume; d, floral glume, 

 ventral view; e, palet; /, palet of pistillate flower distorted by an insect. 



Texas and Mexico, northward to Colorado. 



