No. 10. 

 STIPA KINGII Boland. Proc. Oal. Acad. iv. 170. 



Plant perennial, cespitose at base, with numerous root-fibers. 



Culm erect, simple, terete, smooth, naked above, with but two nodes near the 

 base which are covered with the remains of many sheaths, 5 to 12 inches high. 



Leaves from the base numerous with membranaceous sheaths 1 to 1J inches long, 

 and closely convolute, filiform, scabrous blades 4 to 12 inches long. Leaves of culm 2 ; 

 lower one like the radical leaves, and upper one with close, striate, smooth sheath 3 to 

 6 inches long, and blade not exceeding the lower leaves; ligule membranaceous, acute, 

 often cleft, decurrent. 



Inflorescence a narrow, erect or fl.exu.ous panicle 2 to 5 inches long; branches 

 mostly in twos or threes, erect, scabrous, an inch or less long, bearing 1 to 3 pedicel- 

 late spikelets. 



Spikelets oblanceolate, 1-flowered, 2 hues long; empty glumes elliptical, entire, 

 erose, or sometimes mucronate at the apex, hyaline above, purple below, midnerve 

 obscure, lateral nerves not manifest; first glume 1£ lines long, equaling the floret; 

 second glume half a line longer; stipe obconical, scarcely acute, short-bearded, about 

 | line long; floret spindle-shaped, li lines long and ^ as thick; floral glume ovate, 

 minutely 2-toothed at the apex, chartaceous, brownish purple, clothed with a short 

 pubescence slightly longer at the apex, obscurely o-nerved, V 4 to 1J lines long; awn 

 persistent, finely pubescent, loosely twisted and somewhat bent below the middle ; 

 palet broadly ovate, obtuse, membranaceous, purple, slightly pubescent at the apex, 1 

 to 1^ lines long; lodicules minute or wanting; anthers bearded at the apex; grain 

 oblong, slightly broader above, somewhat flattened, reddish with a yellow apex, nearly 

 opaque, 1 line long and nearly ^ as thick. 



Plate X; a, spikelet enlarged 6 times; b 7 empty glumes; c, floret; d, palet. 



California and Nevada. This is one of the species near the dividing line between 

 Stipa and Oryzopsis. 



