MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 205 



29. SCHIZACHNE Hack. 



Spikelets several-flowered, disarticulating above the glumes and 

 between the florets, the rachilla glabrous; glumes unequal, 3- and 5- 

 nerved ; lemmas lanceolate, strongly 7 -nerved, long-pilose on the callus, 

 awned from just below the teeth of the prominently bifid apex ; palea with 

 softly pubescent, thickened submarginal keels, the 

 hairs longer toward the summit. Rather tall peren- 

 nial with simple culms and open rather few-flowered 

 panicles. Type species, Schizachne Jauriei Hack. 

 (S. purpurascens) . Name from Greek schizein, to 

 split, and achne, chaff, alluding to the bifid lemma. 

 1. Schizachne purpurascens (Torr.) Swallen. 



False melic. (Fig. 4 00.) 



Culms erect from a loosely \ ' 



tufted decumbent base, 50 to 



100 cm tall; sheaths closed; 



blades flat, narrowed at the 



base, 1 to 5 mm wide; panicle 



about 10 cm long, the branches 



single or in pairs, more or less 



drooping, bearing 1 or 2 spike- 

 lets; spikelets 2 to 2.5 cm long; 



glumes purplish, less than half 



as long as the spikelet; lem- 

 mas about 1 cm long, the awn 



as long as the lemma or longer. 



% (Melica striata Hitchc; 



M. purpurasce ns Hitchc; 



Avena torreyi Nash.) — Rocky 



woods, Newfoundland to 



southern Alaska, south to 



Pennsylvania, Kentucky, 



South Dakota, and Montana, 



and in the mountains from 



British Columbia to New 



Mexico (fig. 401); Siberia and 



Japan. 



30. VASEYOCHLOA 

 Hitchc. 



Figure 398.— Melica frv- 

 tcscens. Plant, X 1; 

 floret, X 5. (Munz, 



Figure 399.— Melica calif nr men 



Spikelets subterete 

 slightly compressed, several- J^gg;^ Harwood 

 flowered, the rachilla disar- 

 ticulating above the glumes and between the 

 florets, the joints very short; glumes rather 

 Ptottt,x"i;flfflret,x5. "(Hoff : firm, unequal, much shorter than the lemmas, 



man 37, Calif.) ^ firgt 3 _ %Q 5 _ nerved> the secon d 7 . t0 9- 



nerved; lemmas rounded on the back, firm, closely imbricate, 7- to 

 9-nerved, broad, narrowed to an obtuse entire apex, and with a 

 stipelike hairy callus, pubescent on the lower part of the back and 

 margins; palea shorter than the lemma, splitting at maturity, the 



