60— 
Var. DrumMonpit (Vilfa Drummondii Trin.) Culms stout, 2 to 3 feet high, 
smooth, firm, sometimes with a few lateral branches, lower leaves flat, 6 to 10 inches 
long, the upper becoming involute and setaceously pointed, panicle exserted or looser 
than in the preceding, 5 to 8 inches long; spikelets about 3 lines long; empty glumes 
nearly equal, obtuse, about one-half as long as the spikelet; flowering glume attenu- 
ated above and one-fourth longer than the palet.—New York to Texas. 
4. S. pilosus Vasey. Bot. Gaz. xvi. p. 26. Perennial, from thick roots; whole 
plant pale-green; culms cespitose, rigid, erect, about 14 feet high, leafy, particn- 
larly at the base, mostly simple; sheaths smooth, the uppermost sheathing the base 
of the panicle, the lower crowded and flattened; ligule inconspicuous; the throat, 
margin, and both sides of the lower blades pilose, the upper ones involute and at- 
tenuated to a long point, shorter than the culm; panicle terminal, spike-like, 2 to 3 
inches long, close, the lower part included in the sheath; spikelets 24 lineslong, smooth, 
the lower empty glume one-fourth shorter than the upper, which equals the tlower- 
ing glume and palet, all obtuse.—Kansas (B. B. Smythe). 
Resembles S. aspera, which has the leaves longer than the culm, both empty glumes 
shorter than the flower, and the leaves smooth or not pilose. 
5, S. minor Vasey. (Gray’s Manual, 6th ed., p. 646.) “Culms tufted, perennial 
very slender, erect or ascending, 10 to 18 inches high, leaves short and narrow ; pani- 
cle at first sheathed, becoming exserted, 1 to 3 inches long; glumes and palet nearly 
equal, acute or somewhat acuminate.”— Virginia, Illinois, Missouri, South Carolina to 
Texas. 
6. S. vaginzeflorus Vasey. (Gray’s Manual, 6th ed., p. 645.) (Vilfa, Torr.) Annual; 
culms slender, 6 to 12 inches high, ascending or erect; leaves involute, awl-shaped, 1 to 
4inches long; panicles lateral and terminal, concealed in the sheaths; spikelets little 
more than a line long, glumes and petals nearly equal, acute: grain more than half 
as long as the palet.—Maine to Texas. 
7. S. cuspidatus Torr. (Gray’s Manual, 6th ed., p. 646.) (Vilfa cuspidata Torr.) 
Culms tufted, strongly rooted, erect, slender and wiry, 12 to 15 inches high; leaves 1 to 
4 inches long, very narrow, linear, the branches single, the lower ones Linch long, 
appressed ; spikelets 1 to 14 lines long ; the empty glumes acuminate and little shorter 
than the cuspidate flowering glume.—Maine to Minnesota and in the Rocky Moun- 
tain region, 
8. S. gracilliimus Thurb. (Vilfa gracillima Thurb.) (Bot. Cal. 1. p. 268.) 
“Culms annual, capillary, smooth, much branched at base, forming small, dense tufts, 
3 to 12, but usually about 6 inches high; the leafy portion about 2 inches high; 
leaves 6 to 9 lines long and less than a line broad, flat, involute at apex, very 
minutely scabrous on the upper side and margins; ligule about 1 line long, obtuse 
and lacerate, decurrent; sheaths equaling the internodes, loose, striate, smooth with 
hyaline margins; panicle long-exserted, narrowly linear, few-flowered, interrupted 
below ; rays in pairs or threes, erect, appressed, 1- to 3-flowered; spikelets about a 
line long on shorter pedicels; glumes subequal, or the upper larger, membranaceous, 
colorless, very obtuse, distinctly 1-nerved, mucro or erose-toothed at apex, about 
half as long as the oblong-ianceolate floret, which has a small callus; petals about 
equal, blackish, the lower 3-nerved, with a few very minute hairs on the nerves be- 
low, mucronate or tipped with a small seta.—In the Sierra Nevada, in wet soil at 
11,000 feet altitude, Brewer; Yosemite Valley (Bolander); Santa Barbara (Mrs. 
Cooper) and Oregon (£. Hall).” . 
The habit and annual root abundantly distinguish it from any of the forms of 
S. depauperatus. 
9. S. Wolfii Vasey. Bull. Torr. Club, x. p.52. (Vilfa minima Vasey.) A dwart 
annual grass, 1 to 2 inches high, the culms capillary, with a simple, terminal, few- 
flowered panicle, and one or two similar ones from the axil of the leaves; leaves 
short, strongly nerved; sheaths inflated, striate; spikelets one-half line long; empty 
glumes scarcely half as long as the flower; floral glume ovate; palet equaling the 
glume.—On the shores of Twin Lakes, Colorado (J. Wolf and C. W. Derry). 
