MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 369 



81. LAGtJRUS L. lagos, hare, and our a, tail, alluding 



Spikelets 1-flowered, the rachilla to the woolly heads, 

 disarticulating above the glumes, 1- Lagurus ovatus L. (Fig. 519.) 



pilose under the floret, produced Culms branching at the base, 10 to 



beyond the palea as a bristle; glumes 30 cm. tall, slender, pubescent; sheaths 



subequal, thin, 1-nerved, villous, and blades pubescent, the sheaths 



gradually tapering into a plumose somewhat inflated, the blades flat, 



awn-point; lemma shorter than the lax ; panicle 2 to 3 cm. long, nearly 



glumes, thin, glabrous, bearing on as thick, pale and downy, bristling 



the back above the middle a slender, with dark awns; glumes very narrow, 



exserted, somewhat geniculate, awn, 10 mm. long, the awns of the lemmas 



the summit bifid, the divisions deli- much exceeding them. O — Culti- 



cately awn-tipped; palea narrow, vated for ornament and sparingly 



thin, the two keels ending in minute escaped; New Jersey; Pacific Grove, 



awns. Annual, with pale, dense, ovoid San Francisco, and Berkeley, Calif.; 



or oblong woolly heads. Type species, ballast, Beaufort, N. C; Mediterra- 



Lagurus ovatus. Name from Greek nean region. 



82. MUHLENBERGIA Schreb. Muhly 



Spikelets 1-flowered (occasionally 2-flowered), the rachilla disarticulating 

 above the glumes; glumes usually shorter than the lemma, sometimes as long, 

 obtuse to acuminate or awned, keeled or convex on the back, the first some- 

 times small, rarely obsolete ; lemma firm-membranaceous, 3-nerved (the nerves 

 sometimes obscure or rarely an obscure additional pair), with a very short 

 callus, rarely long-pilose, usually minutely pilose, the apex acute, awned from 

 the tip or just below it, or from between very short lobes, sometimes only 

 mucronate, the awn straight or flexuous. Perennial, or rarely annual, low or 

 moderately tall or rarely robust grasses, tufted or rhizomatous, the culms 

 simple or much-branched, the inflorescence a narrow (sometimes spikelike) 

 or open panicle. Type species, Muhlenbergia schreberi. Named for G. H. E. 

 Muhlenberg. 



Many of the western species are important range grasses, forming a con- 

 siderable proportion of the grass flora of the arid and semiarid regions, and 

 long ago dubbed "muhly" by forest rangers. The most important of these are 

 M. montana on mesas and rocky hills of the Western States, M. pauciflora, 

 M. emersleyi, and M . wrightii in the Southwest. 



la. Plants annual. 

 2a. Lemma awned. 



Awn of lemma 0.5 to 3 mm. long; glumes acuminate, hirsute. 



Spikelets 1.5 to 1.8 mm. long; relatively long pediceled and spreading along the 



panicle branches 5. M. texana. 



Spikelets 2 to 2.5 mm. long; short pediceled and mostly appressed along the panicle 



branches 6. M. eludens. 



Awn of lemma more than 5 mm. long. 



Second glume 3-nerved and often 3-toothed 9. M. pulcherrima. 



Second glume 1-nerved (rarely 2-nerved). 

 First glume 2-nerved and usually bidentate. 



Glumes equal to or slightly longer than the floret; lemma about 3 mm. long; 



awn 2 to 10 mm. long 11. M. depauperata. 



Glumes shorter than the floret, sometimes minute, but usually about half as 

 long as the lemma; lemma 4 to 5 mm. long; awn 10 to 20 mm. long. 



12. M. BREVIS. 

 First glume 1-nerved (rarely 2-nerved), entire or erose, but not bidentate. 

 Glumes acuminate or aristate. Lateral nerves of lemma often ciliate. 



10. M. PECTIN ATA. 



