No. 49. 

 ORCUTTIA CALIFORNICA Vasey, Bull. Torr. Club, xiii. 219. 



Plant annual, in low, spreading- clusters. 



Culms geniculate, spreading, branching, slightly hairy, 2 to 4 inches long. 



Leaves of culm 2 or 3; sheaths open, somewhat inflated, striate, sparsely hairy, 

 about equaling the internodes ; blades flat or folded, 1 inch long or less ; ligule obso- 

 lete. 



Inflorescence a simple panicle about 1 inch long, of 4 to 8 sessile spikelets, inter- 

 rupted below, crowded above, often but a single pair of empty glumes for a cluster of 

 3 or more upper spikelets. 



Spikelets compressed, broadly ovate, 12- to 20-flowered, 3 to 5 lines long; empty 

 glumes oblong, convex, sparsely pubescent, 1 to 2 lines long, with usually 3 acute, 

 3-nerved lobes at the apex, the outer lobes longer; floral glume oblong, convex, scar- 

 ious-margined, sparsely pubescent, 1J to 2£ lines long with 5 narrow, acute, 3-nerved 

 lobes, the middle lobes longer ; palet oblong, erosely 4-toothed at the apex, thin, 1J to 

 2 lines long, with 2 rigid green keels; internodes of rachilla nearly smooth, J line long, 

 not extending beyond the base of the upper floret; stamens 3. 



Plate XLIX; «, plant, natural size; 6, cluster of spikelets enlarged about 7 

 times; c, first empty glume; d, second empty glume; e, floral glume; /, palet; g, 

 stamen and pistil. 



Northern Lower California near the line and probably extending across the boun- 

 dary into the United States. 



