No. 9. 

 STIPA EM IN ENS Oav. Ic. PL v. 42. t. 467. 



Plant perennial, tufted. 



Culms erect, slender, terete, hispidulous, pubescent near the nodes, 2 to 4 feet 

 high ; lower internodes short, covered with weather-worn sheaths. 



Leaves of culm 3 or 4; sheaths rather loose, striate, nearly smooth, shorter than 

 the internodes; blades of lower leaves closely convolute- filiform, 6 to 10 inches long, 

 of upper leaves less convolute, hispid on both surfaces, slender-pointed, 3 lines wide, 

 4 to 6 inches long; ligule membranaceous, truncate, erose, decurrent, ^ line long. 



Infloresence a slender, flexuous or nodding, secund panicle, rather loose, often 

 included at base ; branches in fives, threes or twos, usually pubescent at the axils, 

 slender, flexuous, the longer ones (3 to 4 inches) racemose and bearing 6 to 10 spikelets 

 beyond the middle, the shorter branches spikelet-bearing to the base. 



Spikelets pedicellate, 1-flowered, 5 to 6 lines long; empty glumes divergent, lance- 

 olate, subulate-pointed, membranaceous, smooth, purple or nearly white; first glume 3- 

 nerved, 4 to 6 lines long; second glume a line shorter and 5-nerved; stipe curved, 

 acute, bearded, £ line long; floret spindle-shaped constricted to a slight neck below 

 the apex, 2£ to 3 lines long, ^ line thick ; floral glume thin, chartaceous, clothed with 

 short, appressed pubescence (slightly longer at the minutely bidentate apex), 5-nerved; 

 awn twisted, minutely pubescent, bent, 1 to 1£ inches long; palet broadly ovate, 

 acute, | line long; lodicules less than £ line long; anthers slightly bearded or 

 naked ; grain spindle-shaped, light brown. 



Plate IX; a, spikelet enlarged twice; b, empty glumes; c, floral glume and its 

 apex much enlarged; d, palet. 



Southern and Lower California, confined mostly to the coast ranges and foothills. 



