376 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
Actinochloa gracilis Willd.; Roem, & Schult. Syst. Veg. 2: 418. 1817. Based upon 
Chondrosium gracile H. B. K. 
Atheropogon oligostachyum Nutt. Gen, Pl. 1:78. 1818. 
Eutriana gracilis Trin, Gram. Unifl. 240. 1824, Based upon Actinochloa gracilis 
Willd. 
Atheropogon gracilis Spreng. Syst. Veg. 1: 293. 1825, Based upon Chondrosium gra- 
cile H. B. K. 
Eutriana? oligostachya Kunth, Rév. Gram, 1:96. 1829. Based upon Atheropogon 
oligostachyus Nutt. 
Bouteloua gracilis Lag.; Steud. Nom. Bot. ed. 2. 1: 219. 1840. Based upon Chon- 
drosium gracile H. B. K, 
Chondrosium oligostachyum Torr. in Marcy, Expl. Red Riv. 300. 1852. Based upon 
Atheropogon oligostachyum Nutt. 
Bouteloua oligostachya Torr.; A. Gray, Man. ed. 2. 553. 1856; see also U. S. Dept. 
Agr. Div. Bot. Bull. 121: pl. 41.1890; Britt. & Brown, Illustr. Fl. 1: 180. f. 412. 
1896; U.S. Dept. Agr. Div. Agrost. Bull. 7 : 222. /. 204. 1897 and op. cit. 20: 106 
f. 80. 1900. 
Bouteloua oligostachya intermedia Vasey, Grasses U.S. 33. 1883. A name only. No 
specimen so marked can be found in the National Herbarium. 
Bouteloua oligostachya? major Vasey, Descr. Cat. Grasses U. S. 62. 1885; Dewey, 
Contr. Nat. Herb. 2: 531. 1894; Beal, Grasses N. Amer. 2: 418. 1896. 
Bouteloua major Vasey, Bull. Torrey Club 14: 9. 1887. Vasey publishes a name 
only and refers to specimens previously distributed under it. He also states that 
this is a variety of B. oligostachya. The type is a specimen cultivated from seed col- 
lected by Palmer in Chihuahua, Mexico, in 1886. 
Bouteloua stricta Vasey, Bull. Torrey Club 15: 49. 1888. A very brief description 
is given; a fuller description is furnished later.¢ The type is C. G. Nealley, without 
number, western Texas, 1887. The species commonly assumes in the southwest the 
form represented by Vasey’s type. 
Bouteloua oligostachya pallida Scribn.; Beal, Grasses N. Amer. 2: 418.1896. Pringle . 
407 is the duplicate type in the National Herbarium. There appears to be no good 
reason for recognizing such a variety. Pallid and dark-colored forms may be found 
in nearly all species of the genus. 
DESCRIPTION, 
A stout, erect, smooth, cespitose perennial, forming a rough sod in the north, but 
usually in isolated tufts in the south and much larger and ranker in growth; culms 
branched only at the very base if at all, sheaths loose, striate, smooth; ligule reduced 
to a line with at most only a few scattered hairs; blades linear, rather abundant, 
about 5 to 10 cm, long, 1 to 2 mm. wide, flat, minutely scabrous-margined; spikes 
normally 2, often | or 3 or 4, seldom 5 or 6, very variable in length, commonly above 
3 cm.,? more or less recurved in age with no projecting sterile rachis; spikelets pec- 
tinate, on short, minutely pubescent pedicels, numerous, often as many as 80, con- 
sisting of a fertile flower and a rudiment; glumes lanceolate, short-awned, keeled, 
minutely scabrous, the lower 3 to 3.5 mm. long, the upper 5 to 6 mm. long; lemma 
about 6 mm. long, pubescent, 3-awned, the central awn slightly longer, all hirsute; 
palet about 5 mm. long, shortly 2-awned from the nerves, the latter slightly hirsute 
above; rudiment consisting of 3 scabrous, nearly equal awns with 2 or 3 scales at their 
bases all supported on a short stipe, 1 to 1.3 mm. long, hairy-tufted at base and apex; 
caryopsis 2.5 to 3 mm. long, 0.5 mm. wide, concave on the dorsal and sharply convex 
aU.8. Dept. Agr. Div. Bot. Bull. 12!: pl. 45. 1890. 
6 One specimen without data from Thurber’s herbarium in Herb. Mo. Bot. Gard. 
has spikes 9 cm. long. 
