No. 64. 

 MELICA FRUTESCENS Scribn. Proc. Acad. Phila. for 1885, 45 (1885). 



Plant perennial, tufted, or in small bunches, with rather strong roots. 



Culms erect, simple, or branched below, stout and almost woody at the base, leafy 

 throughout, 2£ to 3J feet tall. 



Leaves of culm 5 to 7, or on the branching forms more numerous; sheath 

 striate, somewhat retrorsely scabrid, closed, usually purple below, exceeding the in- 

 ternodes; blades flat or involute toward the slender points, scabrid on both sides, 

 5 to 12 inches long ; ligule acute, lacerate, or thinly fimbriate, 2 to 4 lines long. 



Inflorescence an erect, strict, linear panicle, somewhat interrupted below, almost 

 spicate above, 6 to 12 inches long; rays mostly in pairs, unequal, 3 inches long or less, 

 appressed, spikelet-bearing to the base or the longer ones naked below. 



SpiTcelets oblanceolate, turgid, 5 to 7 lines long, with usually 5 perfect flowers 

 and a more or less developed rudiment; first empty glume lanceolate, acute, often 

 denticulate near the apex, thin, minutely scabrid, 5- to 7-nerved, 5 lines long; second 

 empty glume oblanceolate, acute, thin, membranaceous above, 7-nerved, 6 lines long; 

 floral glume lanceolate, obtuse, thin, herbaceous, and 7-nerved to the middle, thin, 

 membranaceous above, minutely scabrid throughout, 4 to 4£ lines long; palet oblan- 

 ceolate, rounded at the apex, nervose, minutely scabrid, ciliate on the keels, which are 

 arched and nearly marginal above, 2 lines long;, grain oblong, with a slight beak, 

 brown, flat on one side, wrinkled, 1 line long; internode of rachilla minutely pubes- 

 cent, disarticulating at the base of each floret. 



Plate LXIV; a, panicle of the larger form; b, spikelet with florets spread 

 about as they are at maturity ; c, floret of larger-flowered form ; d, floret of typical 

 form; e, grain. 



Southern California and adjacent Lower California and Mexico. Somewhat 

 bunched (growing in dense clumps) in the vicinity of San Diego; less so at higher 

 elevations. The thin, papery tips of the glumes give the panicle a white appearance. 



