No. 20. 

 MUHLENBERGIA CALIFORNICA Vasey, Bull. Torr. Club, xiii. 53. 



Plant perennial, with strong creeping rootstock, green, often glaucous. 



Culms ascending, geniculate and branching below, terete, lower internodes naked, 

 smooth and shining, waxy-pubescent near the nodes, hispid below the pLiicle, 2 to 2£ 

 feet high. 



Leaves of culm 8 to 11; lower with open sheaths and short divaricate blades, often 

 fascicled; middle and upper with close, striate, hispid sheaths exceeding the internodes 

 and flat, hispid blades \ inch wide and 3 to 5 inches long ; ligule membranaceous, lacer- 

 ate, nearly 1 line long. 



Inflorescence a close almost spike-like panicle, 3 to 5 inches long, interrupted 

 below; branches alternate, nearly erect, pubescent, slightly exceeding the intervals, 

 lower £ to 1£ inches long, with the nearly sessile spikelets crowded on the short, 

 appressed subdivisions. 



SpiTeelets oblanceolate, compressed, 1-flowered, LJ to 2 lines long ; empty glumes 

 lance-ovate, acuminate and subulate-pointed or obtuse and mucronate in the same 

 specimen, carinate, minutely scabrous, membranaceous except the green hispid keel, 

 1-nerved, nearly equal, 1£ to 2 lines long; floral glume ovate, acute, or minutely biden- 

 tate at the apex, finely scabrous, sparingly villous near the base, 3-nerved, lateral 

 nerves extending to the apex but not marginal, midnerve excurrent in a minutely 

 hisped awn h to 1J lines long; palet ovate, acute, thin, villous between the 2 nerves 

 below the middle; stamens 3, included; stigmas branched; grain spindle-shaped, 

 tapering to each end, minutely roughened, reddish-brown, nearly opaque, f bine long. 



Plate XX; a, spikelet enlarged about 5 times; b, ft 1 , empty glumes showing 

 variations; c c ] , floral glumes showing variations in length of awns; d, palet. 



Southern California. This species is doubtless worthy of attention as a forage 

 plant. 



