:No. 54. 

 AGROSTIS MICROPHYLLA Steud. Syn. PI. Gram. 164 (1855). 



Plant annual, loosely tufted, with slender, fibrous roots. 



Culms erect, often branched at the base, slender, smooth, constricted at the black 

 nodes, C to 15 inches tall. 



Leaves of the culm 2 or 3; sheaths nearly smooth, closed, shorter than the inter- 

 nodes; blades erect, scabrid, flat, or loosely involute, 2 inches long or less; ligule 

 usually lacerate, 1 to 2 lines long. 



Inflorescence a close-flowered, spike-like panicle, 1^- to 3 inches long, light-green or 

 purplish, the numerous exserted awns giving it a feathery appearance; rays in semi 

 verticillate clusters at the 5 to 7 nodes, unequal, barely exceeding the intervals, 4 inch 

 long or less, divided and crowded to the base with pedicellate, appressed spikelets. 



SpiJcelets 1-flowered, 1£ to 2 lines long ; empty glumes nearly equal, subulate-pointed 

 thin, hispid on the keels, 1-nerved, 1£ to 2 lines long; floral glume broadly oblong, 4. 

 toothed at the apex, smooth except the few minute hairs at the base, thin, obscurely 

 4-nerved, 1 line long or less; awn arising above the middle, hispidulous, slender, 2 to 

 3 lines long; palet wanting; stamens 3, the short anthers scarcely exserted. 



Plate LIV; «, spikelet with glumes in position ; b, first empty glume; c, second 

 empty glume ; d, floral glume, side view ; c, same opened, dorsal view. 



California to Oregon, mostly on the coast ranges and foothills. This species has 

 been referred to A. exarata, as it resembles some of the small forms of that variable 

 species, but it may be distinguished by the smaller leaves, slender culms, and long 

 awns. 



