No. 58. 



DESCHAMPSIA ELONG ATA (Hook.) Muuro. in Benth. PL Hartw. 342 

 (1857); Aira elongata Hook. Fl. Bor. Amer. ii. 243 (1840?). 



Plant annual, tufted, with fibrous roots. 



Culms erect, simple, slender, smooth, naked above, 12 to 18 inches tall. 



Leaves of culm usually 2, the first with a very short, open sheath and slender, in- 

 volute blade 3 to 6 inches long, the second with long, smooth, striate sheath, rather 

 loose and half open above, and a slender, involute blade 1 to 3 inches long; ligule 

 membranaceous, nearly acute, 1 to 2 lines long, decurrent. 



Inflorescence a linear, strict, erect or slightly nodding panicle 6 to 8 inches long; 

 rays mostly in twos, unequal, 2 inches or less long, erect, scabrous, bearing 3 to 5 

 spike! ets on appressed pedicels. 



Spikelets lanceolate, somewhat compressed, 2£ to 3 lines long, 2 -flowered, with a 

 rudiment of a third; empty glumes nearly equal, lanceolate, acute, purplish above, 

 slightly hispid on the keel, 3-nerved, 2£ to 3 lines long; floral glume broadly oblong, 

 equally 4-toothed at the truncate apex, convex, membranaceous, smooth except the 

 few pilose hairs at the base, obscurely 5-nerved, 1 to 1^ lines long; awn arising near 

 the middle, about 1 line long; palet broadly lance-oblong, 2- or 4-toothed at the apex, 

 slightly hispid ou the 2 keels; grain elliptical, yellow, § line long; lodicules usually 

 present but small ; internode of rachilla § line long, pilose especially above. 



Plate LVIII; a, spikelet partly dissected ; b, floret; c, floral glume, dorsal view. 



California, near the coast in the vicinity of San Francisco and northward to 

 Oregon. Also extending eastward to Idaho and Montana. In some localities very 

 abundant, and furnishing a considerable amount of pasturage. 



