No. 89. 

 GLYCERIA PAUCIFLORA Presl. Eel. Hasnk. i. 257 (1830). 



Plant perennial, often purple in the inflorescence, with a stoloniferous rootstock. 



Culms erect, robust, smooth, leafy nearly to the panicle, 1£ to 3 feet tall. 



Leaves of the culm 3 or 4 ; sheaths striate, nearly smooth, loose, open, usually ex- 

 ceeding the internodes ; blades flat, lanceolate, somewhat scabrid on both sides, 3 to 6 

 lines wide, 3 to G inches long; ligule rounded or more often lacerate, 2 to 3 lines long. 



Inflorescence a somewhat contracted and flexuous or at length loose and open 

 panicle 5 to 8 inches long; rays hispid, 2 to 5 together (usually in pairs) at the 6 to 8 

 nodes, slightly spreading or nearly horizontal, 4 inches long or less, divided and spike- 

 let-bearing from the middle. 



Spikelets linear, 5- to 7-flowered, 2 to 3 lines long; empty glumes less than half 

 the length of the adjacent florets, the first ovate, denticulate near the subacute apex, 

 smooth, 1-nerved, \ line long, the second erose at the rounded apex, 3-nerved, nearly 

 1 line long; floral glume broadly oblong, erose at the rounded, scarious apex, kispidu- 

 lous on the keel, prominently 5-nerved, 1 to 1^ lines long; palet oblong, emarginate, 

 slightly pubescent on the 2 keels, nearly equaling the glume; stamens 3, the oblong- 

 anthers J line long, scarcely exserted; stigmas feathered nearly to the base; grain 

 yellow, subtranslucent, smooth, about £ line long. 



Plate LXXXIX; «,, spikelet; b, floret opened ; c, floral glume. 



California to Alaska and eastward to Colorado in the mountains, near water or 

 in the borders of ponds. 



