570 



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



glabrous; racemes several, ascending, overlapping, 3 to 5 cm long, 

 the axis, rachises, and pedicels scabrous only; spikelets 4 to 5 mm long, 

 lanceolate, rather sparsely appressed-pilose ; glume tapering to an 

 awn-point about 1 mm long; sterile lemma a little shorter than the 

 glume, empty; fruit about half as long as the glume, awned, the awn 

 1 mm long or more. % — Marshes, river banks, and moist ground, 

 southwestern Louisiana and southern Texas. 



8. Eriochloa michauxii (Roem. and Schult.) Hitchc. (Fig. 1190.) 

 Perennial; culms erect, rather stout, 60 to 120 cm tall; blades flat or, 

 on the innovations, sometimes involute, elongate, 2 to 14 mm wide, 

 usually less than 1 cm, glabrous; racemes ascending or spreading, 

 usually numerous, 3 to 5 or even to 15 cm long, the axis 15 to 30 cm 

 long, this and the rachises densely velvety-pubescent; spikelets 

 narrowly ovate, 4 to 5 mm long, appressed- villous, acute; sterile 

 floret usually with a well-developed palea and stamens; fruit 3 to 4 

 mm long, hirsutulous at apex, apiculate or with an awn not more than 

 0.3 mm long. % (E. mollis Kunth.) — Brackish or fresh* meadows 

 and marshes and sandy prairies, southeastern Georgia and Florida. 

 A form with narrow blades and relatively few racemes, the axis and 

 rachis puberulent, has been described as E. mollis var. longijolia 

 Vasey. It grades into the typical form with broader blades and more 

 numerous racemes; the sterile floret contains a staminate flower. 



Eriochloa michauxii var. simps6ni Hitchc. Resembling the 

 narrow-leaved form of the species; racemes few, appressed; sterile 

 lemma empty. 91 — Moist places, Myers to Cape Sable, Fla. 



Eriochloa nelsoni Scribn. and Smith. Tall annual with puberulent 

 blades, few spreading racemes, the rachis very woolly, and rather 

 blunt, turgid pubescent spikelets about 5 mm long. o — Ballast, 

 near Portland, Oreg., Jalisco, Mex., to Nicaragua. 



125. BRACHIARIA (Trin.) Griseb. 



Spikelets solitary, rarely in pairs, subsessile, in two rows on one side 

 of a 3-angled, sometimes narrowly winged rachis, the first glume 



turned toward the 

 rachis; first glume 

 short to nearly as 

 long as the spikelet ; 

 second glume and 

 sterile lemma 

 about equal, 5- to 

 7-nerved, the lem- 

 ma enclosing a 

 hyaline palea and 

 sometimes a stami- 

 nate flower; fertile 

 lemma indurate, 

 usually papillose- 

 rugose, the margins 

 inrolled, th e apex 

 rarely mucronate 

 or bearing a short awn. Branching and spreading annuals or perennials, 

 with linear blades and several spreading or appressed racemes approxi- 

 mate along a common axis. Type species, Brachiaria erucaejormis. 

 Name from Latin brachium, arm, alluding to the armlike racemes. 



^ 



Figure 1191. — Brachiana ciliatissima. Panicle, X 1; two views of spikelet, 

 and floret, X 10. (Type.) 



