No. 59. 

 DESCHAMPSIA HOLCIFORM1S Presl. Eel. Haenk. i. 251 (1830). 



Plant perennial, tufted, with numerous sterile shoots from a creeping rootstock. 



Culm erect, simple, terete, striate, smooth, rather robust, 20 to 30 inches tall. 



Leaves of radical tufts, and of sterile shoots, with smooth, chartaceous sheaths and 

 slender, involute blades 8 to 12 inches long: leaves of the culm usually 2; sheaths 

 smooth, striate, rather loose, half open above, exceeding the internodes ; blades involute, 

 rather rigid, scabrid on the prominent nerves above, about 1 line wide, 3 to 6 inches 

 long; ligule membranaceous, nearly acute, decurrent, 2 lines long. 



Inflorescence an erect, closely flowered, somewhat interrupted, lance-oblong pani- 

 cle, 4 to 6 inches long; rays 3 to 7, in glomerate clusters at the 8 to 10 nodes of the 

 slightly hispid axis, ascending, 1 inch long or less, subdivided, and densely flowered 

 nearly to the base with short-pedicelled, appressed spikelets. 



Spilcelets oblanceolate, slightly compressed, 2-flowered with a sterile rudiment, 3 

 lines long; first empty glume lance-oblong, acute, carinate, hispid on the keel, 2 lines 

 long; second empty glnme broadly lanceolate, acute, convex, 3-nerved, hispid on the 

 keel, 2£ lines long; floral glume oblong, equally 4-toothed at the truncate apex, convex, 

 thicker than the empty glumes, minutely scabrid, pilose at the base, 5-nerved, 2 lines 

 long; awn slender, 1 line long, arising below the middle sinus; palet broadly lance- 

 oblong, emarginate at the apex, slightly hispid on the 2 keels; grain elliptical, £ line 

 long, nearly equaled by the 1 or 2 lodicules; rachilla and sterile pedicel pilose, each 

 1 line long. 



Plate LIX; a, spikelet partly dissected; b, floret opened; c, first empty glume; 

 d, second empty glume; e, floral glume. 



California, near the coast. It is probably of some value for hay and forage in the 

 low marshes along the coast. It varies greatly under different conditions, some forms 

 with loose panicles even approaching D. cevspitosa. 



