No. 23. 

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



Plant perennial, loosely tufted. 



Culms weak, ascending, geniculate, and often rooting below, diffusely branching, 

 lower internodes smooth and shining, hispid below the panicle, 2 to 3 feet high. 



Leaves of culm <> to 12; sheaths hispid, usually exceeding the internodes; blades 

 flat, hispid on both sides, 5- to 7 nerved, 2 to .*> lines wide and 3 to ."> inches long; ligule 

 membranaceous, obtuse, ciliate, 1 line long or less. 



Inflorescence an erect, linear panicle, 4 to <i inches long, interrupted below ; branches 

 slightly exceeding the intervals, U inches long or less, crowded to the base with nearly 

 sessile spikelots on the short subdivisions. 



Spilcelets narrow, L-flowered, U to 2 lines long'; empty glumes lance-ovate, acute 

 or bidentate, carinate, membranaceous, hispidulous, colorless except the green, hispid 

 inidnerve which is excurrent in a hispid macro or awn \ to A as long as the glume, 

 subequal, exceeding the floret, U to 2 lines long; floret spindle-shaped, not caducous, 

 ].\ lines long; Moral glume lance-ovate, acute, membranaceous, firm, sparingly villous 

 at base, 3-nerved, the lateral nerves uniting at the apex with the midnerve excurrent 

 in a hispid awn 1 to 2 lines long; palet equaling the glume, lanceolate, nearly acute 

 or slightly cleft at the apex, villous like the glume ;it the base; stamens .">; branching 

 stigmas bright purple; grain spindle-shaped, tapering abruptly to each end, dark 

 reddish brown, opaque, ',' line long. 



Plate XXIII; <t, spikelet enlarged 5 times; ft, empty glumes ; <■, floral glume; '/, 

 palet. 



Southern California. This species is distinguished from ,1/. sylvatica chiefly by 

 the shorter awns and the more densely spicate inflorescence, and from .1/. Californica, 

 which it approaches more closely by the looser panicle, the more decided awns of the 

 empty glumes and the longer awns of the floral glumes. 



