380 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
A low delicate perennial, prostrate below, geniculate at the lower nodes, the 
branches commonly in pairs or fascicles; nodes and summit of the sheaths 
pilose; blades flat or folded, 8 to 12 mm. long, about 1.5 mm. wide; racemes of 
few to several minute spikes, the spikelet solitary, pilose at base, 3 to 4 mm. 
long; glumes lanceolate, acuminate, the first one-third, the second slightly over 
half the length of the spikelet; fertile lemma narrow, with 3 erect scabrous 
teeth at the summit, the palea 2-toothed, shorter; sterile floret about equaling 
the fertile lemma, consisting of 3 slender scabrous awns. 
Arid open ground, Haiti (Gonaives, Buch 1910) and Porto Rico (red soil 
plain, Salinas de Guanica, Britton, Cowell & Brown 4918). Originally de- 
scribed from Hispaniola. Hutriana ledebouri was described from ‘“ Domingo ” 
(though the type specimen, collected by Poiteau, is labeled “ Hayti’’). Grif- 
fiths* applies Desvaux’s specific name to a Mexican species, Bouteloua triana 
(Trin.) Scribn., basing his judgment on Beauvois’s crude illustration, and lists 
Eutriana ledebourit under species excluded from Bouteloua, Until recently 
collected by Buch in Haiti and by Britton, Cowell, and Brown in Porto Rico 
this species was known only from the collections described by Desvaux and by 
Trinius. The Mexican B. triana, with its spikes of a single spikelet, was 
apparently the only species to which Beauvois’s figure could apply, though the 
description states that the lemma of the fertile floret is minutely trifid and the 
figure shows such a lemma. In the Mexican species the lemma is entire, while 
in Buch’s specimen from Haiti the lemma is trifid. Pilger’? applies the name 
“ Bouteloua americana (Desv.) Pilger” to Buch’s collection, basing the name 
on “Triathera americana Desy., excluding synonymy.” Desvaux? described 
the genus Triathera with a single species, 7. americana, based on “Aristida 
americana Sw.” (the same as A. americana L., as is shown clearly by Swartz’s 
illustration ;‘ that is, Bouteloua americana). Desvaux mentioned no specimen 
of his own, but later * he emended the generic description, accepting the specific 
name “ juncea,”’ as published under his authorship the previous year by 
Beauvois, and added “ Habitat in Hispaniola.” 
3. Bouteloua americana (L.) Scribn. Proc. Acad. Phila. 1891: 306, 1891. 
Aristida americana L. Syst. Nat. ed. 10. 2: 879. 1759. 
Aristida antillarwm Poir. in Lam. Encycl. Suppl. 1: 451. 1810. 
Bouteloua litigiosa Lag. Gen. & Sp. Nov. 5. 1816, 
Chaetarta antillarum Beauv.; Roem. & Schult. Syst. Veg. 2: 395. 1817. 
Aristida subbifiora Steud. Syn. Pl. Glum. 1: 188. 1854. 
Eutriana antillarum Steud. Syn. Pl. Glam, 1: 217, 1854. 
Bouteloua elatior Griseb. Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 587, 1864. 
Aristida adscensionis var. americana Kuntze, Rev. Gen. Pl. 3: 340. 1898. 
A tufted perennial, the freely branching flattened wiry culms often 60 or 
70 cm. long (sometimes longer), decumbent with ascending ends, the narrow 
blades mostly involute-pointed, the few to several slender, loosely flowered 
spikes divergent, rather distant. ; 
Open, dry ground, West Indies to Panama and Venezuela. Aristida ameri- 
cana (of which B. litigiosa is a typonym) was described from Jamaica, A. 
antillarum from the Antilles, A. subbifiora from Guadeloupe, and Bouteloua 
elatior from Antigua. 
Contr. U. 8. Nat. Herb. 14: 424, 1912. 
?7In Urban, Symb. Antill. 5: 288. 1907. 
* Nouv. Bull. Soc. Philom. Paris 2: 188. 1810. 
* Obs. Bot. pl. 2. f. 2. 1791. 
* Journ. de Bot. Desv. 1: 67. 1813, 
