544 



MISC. PUBLICATION 200, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



duced. Low tufted or stoloniferous 

 annuals or perennials, with short 

 blades, and several to many short 

 deciduous spikes approximate on a 

 slender flexuous axis. Type species, 

 Cathestecum prostratum Presl. Name 

 from Greek kathestekos, set fast, sta- 

 tionary, the application not obvious. 

 1. Cathestecum erectum Vasey and 

 Hack. (Fig. 790.) Perennial with 

 wiry stolons having arched inter- 

 nodes and hairy nodes; culms slender, 

 10 to 30 cm. tall; blades flat, about 

 1 mm. wide, mostly basal; spikes 4 

 to 8, ovoid, about 5 mm. long; 

 lateral spikelets about two-thirds as 

 long as the central spikelet; lemmas 

 of all spikelets similar, the sterile 

 ones more deeply lobed; awns from 

 about as long as the lobes to twice 

 as long, hairy at base. % — Dry 

 hills, western Texas, southern Ari- 



zona, and northern Mexico. 



114. MUNR0A Torr. 



Spikelets in pairs or threes on a 

 short rachis, the lower 1 or 2 larger, 

 3- or 4-flowered, the upper 2- or 3- 

 flowered, the group (reduced spikes) 

 enclosed in the broad sheaths of 

 short leaves, usually about 3 in a 

 fascicle, forming a cluster or head at 

 the ends of the branches; rachilla 

 disarticulating above the glumes and 

 between the florets; glumes of the 

 lower 1 or 2 spikelets equal, 1-nerved, 

 narrow, acute, a little shorter than 

 the lemmas, those of the upper 

 spikelet unequal, the first much 

 shorter or obsolete; lemmas 3-nerved, 

 those of the lower spikelet coriaceous, 

 acuminate, the points spreading, the 

 midnerve extended into a mucro, 

 those of the upper spikelet mem- 



Figure 791. — Munroa squarrosa. Plant, X l A; group of spikelets, spikelet, and floret, X 5. (Zuck 43, Ariz.) 



