84 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Plants less than 1 meter, sometimes only 30 to 40 cm. high; culms slender, few to 
many in loose clusters, the corms smaller, not over 8 mm. in diameter, commonly 
many together attached at the base to a rootstock; blades 10 to 40 cm., usually less 
than 25 cm. long, 2 to 4 mm. wide; spikelets 2.8 to 3.2 mm. long. 
As limited here this subspecies includes only those specimens having both the 
smaller spikelets and narrower blades. Many intergrading forms are included in the 
species. 
DISTRIBUTION. 
Gravelly river banks, ravines of mesas and similar situations in the Rocky and 
Sierra Madre mountains from New Mexico and Arizona to central Mexico. 
New Mexico: Mangas, Smith in 1897; Las Vegas, Vasey in 1881; Mogollon Moun- 
tains, Metcalfe 357; Gray, Earle & Karle 180; Organ Mountains, //iteheock 
3784; Niggerhead Mountains 
1932; without locality, Wright 
2086. 
Arizona: Chiricahui Mountains, 
Toumey 12; Santa Rita Moun- 
tains, Pringle in 1884; San 
Francisco Mountains Forest 
Reserve, Leiberg 5816; Burro 
Mountains, Rusby 445c in part; 
Yavapai County, Rusby in 
1883; Flagstaff, Jones 4019; Fic. 74.—Distribution of P. bulbosum sciaphilum. 
Patagonia, J/itchcock 3716; 
Huachuca Mountains, Griffiths 4811, [olzner 1729, 1742, Lemmon 2908, 2922; 
Fort Huachuca, Wileor in 1891; Bill Williams Mountain, Lemmon 3152; 
Beaver Creek, Rusby 866; without locality, Rothrock 296. 
Mexico: Nogales, Griffiths 67854; Chihuahua, Nelson 6298; Cusihuiriachic, Pringle 
1406; Otinapa, Palmer 348, 349, and 554 in 1906; Tejamen, Palmer 469 in 
1906 in part; Papasquiaro, Palmer 467 in 1896; Territorio de Tepic, Rose 2053. 
near Monument no. 82, Mearns i< 
frtmese el! 
Virgata.—Perennials from stout rootstocks; mostly maritime species, with stout 
simple culms and firm foliage; ligules membranaceous, ciliate; panicles open 
or contracted; spikelets glabrous, mostly large, terete or thicker than wide, 
usually gaping, owing to the well-developed staminate floret and its palea 
in addition to the perfect one, the glumes and sterile lemma firm in texture, 
the fruit relatively rather small, smooth and shining, in some species the 
margins of the lemma scarcely inrolled. 
Spikelets not over 2.5 mm. long, first glume less than half the 
length of the spikelet. 
Panicles loosely flowered; first glume truncate, about 
one-fifth the length of the spikelet............... 42. P. repens. 
Panicles rather densely flowered; first glume triangular, 
about one-third the length of the spikelet......... 43. P. gouint. 
Spikelets 3 to 7 mm. long (sometimes less than 3 mm. in P. 
virgatum cubense); first glume more than half the length 
of the spikelet. 
Panicles elongated, strongly contracted; seacoast plants. 
Culms rarely | meter high, solitary from the nodes of 
the horizontal rootstock. .............------- 46. P. amarum. 
Culms 1 to 2 meters high, in dense tufts............. 47, I, amarulum. 
