No. 94. 

 BROMUS ORCUTTIANUS Vasey, Bot. Gaz. x. 223 (1885). 



Plant perennial, loosely tufted. 



Culms erect, thickened at the base, finely pubescent or nearly smooth, leafy to 

 the middle or above, 2 to 4 feet tall. 



Leaves from the base numerous, with very short sheaths and flat blades, 4 to 8 inches 

 long: leaves of the culm 3 or 4; sheaths close, half open at the throat, striate, pubes- 

 cent or nearly smooth, shorter than the long internodes; blades flat, smooth or the 

 upper ones scabrous, 2 to 4 lines wide, 3 to G inches long; ligule rather thick, less than 

 1 line long. 



Inflorescence an erect panicle 4 to 6 inches long; rays 2 to 4 at each of the 5 or 6 

 nodes, erect or slightly spreading, or rigidly horizontal, and even deflexed at maturity, 

 unequal, 3 inches long or less, slightly scabrid, bearing appressed spikelets on pedicels 

 mostly shorter than themselves. 



Spikelets 1 to 1J inches long, with 3 to 6 florets and an awned rudiment, erect and 

 imbricated, or at length loose and divergent ; first empty glume narrowly ovate, acute, 

 carinate, hispid on the keel, 1-nerved or obscurely 3-nerved, 2£ to 3 J lines long; second 

 empty glume lance-oblong, acute, or often mucronate, slightly hispid or thinly pubes- 

 cent, prominently 3-nerved, 3 to 4 lines long; floral glume lance-oblong, subacute or 

 rounded at the narrow apex, hispidulous, 5- to 7-nerved, 4 J to 6 lines long; awn 

 arising at the apex or just below, hispid, 2 to 4 lines long; palet lanceolate, rounded 

 or nearly acute at the apex, ciliate on the keels, half a line shorter than the glume; 

 stamens 3, with yellow anthers 2 lines long ; ovary pubescent ; grain linear, with a 

 shallow channel on one side, yellow or brown, semitranslucent, 4 to 5 lines long, 

 including the tuft of white hairs at the rounded apex; lodicules 2, £ line long; inter- 

 node of rachilla slender, pubescent, 1 to Ih, lines long. 



Plate XOIY; 1, plant at flowering time; 2, panicle at maturity; a, spikelet; b, 

 empty glumes; c, floral glume, side view and dorsal view; d, palet; c, lodicules and 

 grain. 



Southern California to Washington. The specimens from different regions vary 

 considerably in the pubescence and in the rigidity of the panicle. 



