50 
ously involute, minutely scabrous; culm leaves two, the upper short; ligule 1 line 
long, acute, often cleft; panicle narrow, 2 or 3 inches long, the branches in twos or 
threes, the lower 1 inch or more long, erect, few-flowered ; spikelets 2 lines long; 
empty glumes hyaline, purple-tinged, the upper about 2 lines long, the lower a 
little shorter; flowering glume less than 2 lines long, sparsely pubescent, and with 
a short, hairy callus; awn 6 lines long, bent below the middle, scabrous and per- 
sistent; palet equaling the flowering glume, hairy at the apex.—California (Bolan- 
der’s distrib., No. 6097), 
2. S. tenuissima Trin. Act. Petrop. 1836, p. 36. Culms densely tufted, 2 to 24 
feet high, filiform, with 2 to 3 distant nodes; leaves filiform, scabrous, the radical 
tufts equaling the culm, the cauline leaves similar, the uppermost sheathing the base 
of the panicle; the panicle narrow, 6 to 9 inches long, slender, the branches rather 
distant, the lower ones in two or threes, 14 to 2 inches long, tlowering nearly to the 
base; empty glumes unequal, about 3-nerved, the lower 5 to 6 lines long, the upper 
3 lines, including, in both, the long fine point; flowering glume about 1 line long, 
minutely punctate, enlarged above, with the apex constricted and crowned with a 
few hairs; near the base and on the very short stipe, sparsely white-hairy; the 
slender, flexuous awn, 2 to 3 inches long.—Texas, New Mexico, Mexico and probably 
Arizona. 
3. &. viridula Trin. (Gray’s Manual, 6th ed.,p. 642.) (8S. parviflora Nutt.: S. spartea 
Hook), Culms 14 tosometimes 5 feet high, leaves all involute-setaceous at the apex ; 
in the large forms the blade is flat and 1 or 2 feet long; in smaller forms often involute 
throughout, smooth, pubescent or scabrous; ligule very short; sheaths half the 
length of the internodes or less; panicle 4 to 18 inches long, narrow, loose, the short, 
erect rays in twos or threes, or even in fives; spikelets 4 to 5 lines long (exeluding 
the awns) on shorter pedicels; empty glumes nearly equal,3 to 5 lines long, ovate 
to lanceolate, bristle-pointed, the lower 5-, the upper 3-nerved, sometimes purple- 
tinged ; flowering glume fusiform to linear-oblong, one-fourth shorter than the empty 
glumes, pubescent with short scattered hairs which at the apex form a thin crown, 
and with 2 very minute teeth, the callus short; awn from less than 1 inch to 14 incnes 
long, slender, flexuous, pubescent to plumose below, and scabrous above, usually twice 
bent, at length deciduous; palet more than half as long as its glume; anthers naked. 
The above description is somewhat modified from Dr. Thurber’s description in 
Botany of California. The species, as he says, is “ very variable in the size of the 
culm and character of the panicle, which is usually slender and loosely flowered, some- 
times reduced to a mere raceme of a few 1-flowered rays, and at the other extreme 
crowded and spikelike.” 
The principal varieties which I have indicated are: 
Var. ROBUSTA, a large form 4 to 6 feet high, growing in dense clumps in moun- 
tain valleys, with panicle 1 foot to 18 inches long. This variety in parts of Texas 
and Mexico is known as sleepy grass, from an intoxicating or narcotic effect which it 
produces upon horses or cattle which feed upon it. 
Var. PUBESCENS, A variety, or perhaps a species, of Nevada, Oregon, and Wash- 
ington, 2 to 3 feet high, with pubescent leaves and sheaths, the awns also strongly 
pubescent below, 
Var. MINOR. Smaller throughout, occurs at higher altitudes, the awns usually 
shorter. 
Var. LETTERMANI Vasey, Slender, small-flowered, and short-awned, 
There are many intermediate forms, probably including 8. Columbiana Macoun. 
4. S. occidentalis Thurb. Bot. Cal. u. p. 285. Culms slender, 1 to 2 feet high, 
somewhat scabrous, more or less pubescent at the nodes; radical leaves 2 to 4 inches 
long, those of the culm shorter, all involute, rigid and rough; sheaths shorter than 
the internodes; ligule conspicuous, 2 to 3 lines long, lacerate; panicle 3 to 6 inches 
long, the base often included, contracted ; Tays mostly erect, the lower in twos or 
threes and few-flowered, the upper solitary and 1-flowered ; lower glume 5 lines long, 
