MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



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branches below; spikelets broad, pale, 7 to 10 mm long, usually 2- 

 flowered, the florets spreading, pendulous on slender pedicels, pubes- 

 cent at the summit, the spikelets falling entire; glumes nearly as 

 long as the spikelet; lemmas scaberulous, strongly nerved, the two 

 florets about the same height; rudiment ob- 

 conic. % — Rocky woods, Maryland to Iowa, 

 south to Florida and Texas (fig. 393). 



13. Melica nitens (Scribn.) Nutt. Three- 

 flower melic. (Fig. 394.) Resembling M. 

 mutica; on the average culms taller; sheaths 

 glabrous or scabrous; blades 7 to 15 mm wide; 

 panicle more compound with several spreading 

 branches; glumes shorter than the usually 3- 

 flowered narrower spikelet; apex of the second floret a little higher 

 than that of the first; lemmas acute. % — Rocky woods, Penn- 

 sylvania to Iowa and Kansas, south to Kentucky, Arkansas, Texas, 

 and Arizona (fig. 395). 



Figure 393.— Distribution of 

 Melica mutiea. 



Figure 394.- Melica nitens. Plant, X 1; floret, X 5. (McDonald 15, 111.) 



14. Melica torreyana Scribn. Torrey melic. (Fig. 396.) Culms 

 30 to 100 cm tall, ascending from a loose decumbent not bulbous 

 base; blades lax, 1 to 3 mm wide; panicle narrow, rather loose, 8 to 20 

 cm long, the branches more or less fascicled, appressed or ascending, 

 the lower fascicles distant ; spikelets 4 to 6 mm 

 long, with 1 or 2 perfect florets and a minute 

 obovoid, long-stiped rudiment; glumes strongly 

 nerved, as long as the spikelet or nearly so; 

 lemmas pubescent, subacute. 91 — Thickets 

 and banks at low altitudes, central California, 

 especially in the Bay region. 



15. Melica imperfecta Trin. California 

 melic. (Fig. 397.) Resembling M. torreyana; 



culms erect or ascending; the base sometimes decumbent or 

 stolonif erous ; panicle 5 to 30 cm long, the lower branches commonly 

 ascending to spreading; spikelets usually with 1 perfect floret and 

 an oblong, short-stiped rudiment appressed to the palea; glumes 



Figure 395.— Distribution of 



Melica nitens. 



