420 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
Eutriana racemosa Trin.; Fourn. Mex. Pl. 2: 141, 1881. A name only. According 
to Hitchcock’s notes on the Trinius Herbarium, Trinius’s specimen labeled F. racemosa 
is there put in the cover with B. curtipendula, to which species it belongs. (See T'ria- 
thera gracilis under Triaena juncea. ) 
Atheropogon affinis Fourn. Mex. Pl. 2: 141. 1881. Based upon Lutriana affinis 
Hock. 
DESCRIPTION. 
A tall, erect, cespitose perennial, 50 to 80 cm. high, spreading by strong, scaly, 
creeping rootstocks; sheaths rather close, prominently striate, smooth, the ligule 
ciliate-fringed; blades abundant, 10 to 30 cm. long, smooth or very minutely scabrous, 
about equally distributed over the culm; panicle racemose, 15 to 25 cm. long, with 
flattened axis; spikes 35 to 50, 
bilaterally arranged on the flat- 
tened axis, but the delicate pe- 
duncles so twisted and curved as 
to make them unilateral, 1 to 2 
cm. long; spikelets bilateral on 
a flattened rachis, but not pecti- 
nate, 5 to 8, consisting of one 
fertile floret and a rudiment; 
glumes scabrous-keeled, the first 
4 to 5 mm., the second about 7 
mm, long; lemma minutely 3- 
awned, the central awn but little 
longer than the lateral, 5 to 6 mm, 
long, smooth to slightly scabrous 
on the nerves toward the apex; 
palet acuminate, scabrous above; 
the rudiment reduced to a min- 
ute scale with a delicate scabrous 
awn, and a rudimentary palet 
consisting of 2 very delicate awns; 
caryopsis elliptical, about 4.5 
mm. long, 1.56 mm. wide, the 
scutellum covering two-thirds to 
three-fourths of the ventral sur- 
Fic. 63.—Bouteloua curtipendula. a, Spikelet; b, c, lemma face. (PLATE 69, A, facing p. 345; 
and palet of first floret; d, rudimentary second floret; e, two 82, B, facing p. 413. Fiaure 63.) 
views and cross section of caryopsis; /,¢, lemma and rudi- The common “‘side-oat grama ” 
ment from a different plant. a, Scale 5; b-y, scale 8. a-e, to. . . 
From Griffiths 7261; f, 9, from Griffiths 7071. has a distribution in area second 
only to B. hirsuta. It is abun- 
dant from Illinois and Ontario westward and southward far into South America 
and has been collected as far east as New York and Connecticut. It is an im- 
portant native forage in many places. Being of good quality and a large, vigorous 
grower, it is one of the most promising species for domestication, but, like all the others 
of this genus, it has the important disadvantage of poor seed habits. Besides being 
produced in small amount, the seed is difficult of separation from the chaff. In all 
attempts that have been made to establish meadows of it—and there have been a num- 
ber in an experimental way—no attempts have been made to thrash the seed at all, 
The spikes, which readily separate from the culms of maturity, bave been gathered 
and sown. 
