JSo. 65. 



MELICA FUG AX Boland. Proc. Cal. Acad. iv. 104 (1870). 



Plant perennial, strongly bulbous, with a contorted rootstock bearing the remains 

 of old bulbs, roots finely lanate. 



Culms erect, rarely branched, slender, wiry, retrorsely hispid, naked above, 1 to 2 

 feet tall. 



Leaves of culm lor 2; sheaths retrorsely scabrid, close, half open at the throat, 

 exceeding the short, lower internodes; blades flat or somewhat involute toward the 

 attenuate points, scabrous or minutely pubescent, 1 to 2 lines wide, 3 to 6 inches long ; 

 ligule lacerate, about 1 line long. 



Inflorescence a loose, open, erect panicle, 4 to 6 inches long, rarely unexpancled and 

 linear, often with small, lateral panicles in the upper sheath; branches mostly in twos 

 or threes at the 4 or 5 rather distant nodes, unequal, horizontal, bearing 1 to 4 spike- 

 lets toward the extremities. 



SpiTcelets oblong, about 5 lines long, with 2 to 4 perfect florets and a rudiment, erect 

 and imbricated, deciduous; first empty glume broadly ovate-oblong, obtuse, often 

 toothed on one or both sides below the apex, smooth, purple, 1-nerved, scarious- 

 margined, 1J lines long; second empty glume broadly lanceolate, obtuse or barely 

 acute, smooth, obscurely 3- to 5-nerved, scarious-margined, 2£ lines long; floral glume 

 broadly obovate-oblong, minutely roughened, purple near the narrow, scarious margin, 

 7-nerved, 2 to 3 lines long and more than half as wide; palet lance-oblong, obtuse, 

 minutely pubescent on the arched keels, slightly shorter than the glume; grain oblong, 

 curved, 1 line long; internode of rachilla yellow, tuberculate, glabrous. 



Plate LXY; a, spikelet with mature florets in position; />, spikelet partly dis- 

 sected and the parts of the florets spread open. 



California to Washington, mostly in the mountain valleys. Evidently a grass of 

 some promise if introduced in cultivation. 



