No. 73. 

 PDA BOLANDERI Vasey, Bot. Gaz. vii. 32 (1882 . 



Plant perennial, loosely tufted. 



Culms erect, or slightly geniculate below, somewhat thickened at the base, smooth, 

 leafy to the middle or above, 1 to 2 feet tall. 



Leaves of the radical tufts thin and lax, smooth, 3 to G inches long: leaves of the 

 culm 3 or 4 ; sheaths smooth, close, closed at the throat, shorter than the rather long 

 internodes; blades flat, rather abruptly pointed, thin, smooth, 1£ to 2 lines wide, 2 

 to 4 inches long ; ligule obtuse, 1 J to 2 lines long. 



Inflorescence an erect, slender or at length spreading panicle (perhaps contracted 

 after flowering), 4 to 6 inches long; rays smooth like the axis, 2 to 5 at each of the 4 

 or 5 distant nodes, erect or at length horizontal, spikelet-bearing towards the extrem- 

 ities, the subdivisions and short pedicels appressed, making the spikelets appear almost 

 sessile on the primary rays at intervals about equaling their own length. 



/Spikelets 1- to 3-flowered, 1| to 2 lines long; empty glumes ovate, nearly acute, 

 smooth, the first 1-nerved, 1 line long, the second obscurely 3-nerved and longer than 

 the first but not equaling the lower floret; floral glume ovate-oblong, obtuse or barely 

 acute, too narrow to envelope the mature grain, scarious-margined, nearly smooth 

 except the slight web at the base, 5-nerved, 1^ lines long; palet oblong, obtuse, green, 

 nearly smooth, slightly shorter than the glume; grain lanceolate, slightly flattened, 

 acute at each end, yellow, nearly translucent, 1 line long; internode of rachilla smooth, 

 £ line long, easily disarticulating between each floret, leaving the empty glumes. 



Plate LXXIII; a, plant with panicle contracted; b, plant with open panicle; c, 

 spikelet ; d, floral glume, dorsal view ; e, grain. 



California, in the region of Lake Tahoc, and at a few other localities in moist, alka- 

 line soil. 



