MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



239 



soft and papery; blades flat or loosely involute, mostly less than 10 

 cm long, 1 to 3 mm wide; spike more or less flexuous, 4 to 7 cm long, 

 the rachis scabrous on the angles, slender, the middle internodes 

 usually 8 to 10 mm long; spikelets mostly 3 to 7 in each spike, rather 

 distant, the lower and middle ones (excluding 

 awns) about as long as two internodes, mostly 

 3- to 5-flowered, the rachilla joints minutely 

 scabrous, about 2 mm long ; glumes rather nar- 

 row, about 3-nerved on the exposed side, 7 to 

 8 mm long, tapering into a straight awn about 

 5 mm long; lemmas tapering into a scabrous, 

 strongly divergent awn 1.5 to 2.5 cm long; 

 palea 10 to 12 mm long. % — Stony slopes, 

 2,500 to 3,500 m, Sierra Nevada, Tulare County, to Sierra County, 

 Calif. 



17. Agropyron scribneri Vasey. Spreading wheatgrass. (Fig. 

 463.) Culms tufted, prostrate or decumbent-spreading, often flexuous, 



Figure 461.— Distribution of 

 Agropyron bakeri. 



Figure 462. — Agropyron pringlei, X 1 

 (Pringle 504, Calif.) 



Figure 463.— Agropyron scribneri, 

 1179, Colo.) 



X 1. (Shear 



20 to 40 cm long; blades flat or, especially on the innovations, loosely 

 involute, more or less pubescent, mostly basal, the 2 or 3 culm blades 

 usually less than 5 cm long, 1 to 3 mm wide ; spike long-exserted, often 

 nodding or flexuous, dense, 3 to 7 cm long, the rachis disarticulating 

 at maturity, the internodes glabrous, 3 to 5 mm long, or the lowermost 



55974°— 35 



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