GRIFFITHS—THE GRAMA GRASSES. 415 
the Gray Herbarium and in the National Herbarium. Number 739 in the herbarium 
of the Paris Muséum, as stated above, has, on the same sheet, both wide@ and narrow® 
spikes, common in this species, 
Atheropogon americanus depauperata{us] Fourn, Mex. Pl. 2: 139. 1881. Fournier 
cites Bouteloua juncifolia Lag. and Eutriana lagascae Kunth as synonyms. He men- 
tions two specimens, the first is one from Karwinski in the St. Petersburg Herbarium 
with neither number nor locality; the other is Wright 739. It is evident from his 
description and the citation of the last speci- 
men that he had in mind Bouteloua porphy- 
rantha Wright. He is evidently wrong in his 
interpretation of Lagasca. 
Heterosteca rhadina Nash, Bull. Torrey Club 
30: 386.1903. Heller’sno. 6057, near Ponce, 
Porto Rico, in the New York Botanical Gar- 
den, is the type. Duplicates are widely dis- 
tributed. Some of these duplicates show the 
same facts exhibited by Wright 739 in the 
herbarium of the Paris Muséum. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Plants mostly low, spreading, sometimes 
erect, but mostly reclined, and often nearly 
prostrate and stoloniferous, perennial; culms 
freely branching; spikes 4 to 10, variable, 
1.5 to 3 cm. long, 2 to 6 mm. wide; spikelets 
4 to 7, about 12 mm. Jong including awns, 
2-flowered, the lower perfect or pistillate, 
the upper staminate; glumes nearly equal, 
scabrous-keeled; lemma of lower floret short- 
awned, with lateral awns shorter than the 
central, smooth, coriaceous, about 8 mm. 
long; lemma of upper floret smooth, coria- 
ceous 10 to 12 mm. long, with long awns, the Fic. 59.—Boutelowa heterostega. a, Spikelets b, 
lateral slightly shorter than the central; © lemma and palet of first floret; d, e, lemma 
palet smooth, 8 mm. long, very short-awned to putet, "tn Seale Oh ba ceale 15 Prom 
sulcate, on the back between the two nerves, —_resn 361, 
the edges involute; caryopsis about 3 mm. 
long, 0.7 mm. wide, pointed below and contracted above (immature). (F1cureE 59.) 
The species, as it occurs in the West Indies, is very variable in every particular. 
The spike and spikelet characters are especially subject to variation. The above 
characterization is drawn from Brother Leén’s no. 861 in so far as spike and details 
are concerned, amended from Curtiss (West Indian Plants) 546 and others, as to plant 
characters. The Curtiss specimen in the National Herbarium shows two distinct 
forms of spikes, one as here described and figured, and the other resembling B. ameri- 
cana. Kunth figured¢ the wide-spiked form. The majority of the specimens show 
a true perennial character, while B. americana is evidently an annual. In habit and 
general aspect the species presents all sorts of variations from an erect plant, with 
branching culms, to a low prostrate plant, with often long-geniculate to prostrate 
4 Bouteloua humboldtiana Griseb. 
b Bouteloua porphyrantha Wright. 
cH. B. K. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 1: 173. pl. 54. 1816. 
9368°—12——-6 
