164 TWELFTH ANNUAL SEPORT. 



A. purpurea, Nutt.* Triple-awned Grass. 



Blue Earth county, and common westwaid to Pipestone county, Leiberg. South- 

 west. 



A . purpiirascens, Poir. Triple-awned Grass. 



Lapham. St. Croix county, Wisconsin, Swezey. Infrequent. South. 



A. tuberculosa, Nutt. Triple-awned Grass. 

 Lapham. Pine barrens, St. Croix river. Parry. South. 



SPARTIN A , Schreber. Cokd or Marsh Grass. 



S. cynosuroides, Willd. Fresh-water Cord-Grass. 



Abundant through the south lialf of tlie state and in the Red river valley ; north ol 

 lake Superior, Agassiz; making up the greater part of the hay cut in sloughs, worth for 

 fodder fully half as much as the hay of the uplands. Its hight is usually from two to 

 four feet, but occasionally it is eight or nine feet. In the five or six counties next to the 

 southwest corner of the state, because of the scarcity of wood and the high cost of that 

 or coal for fuel, a large proportion of the people burn only hay during the whole year. 

 For this purpose the coarse hay of this species is the only kind used. It is mostly burned 

 in ordinary stoves, having been twisted, then doubled and again twisted, forming wisps 

 about one and a half feet long. The quantity of this fuel required for a year's supply in 

 an ordinary farm-house is from eight to twelve tons. 



BOUTEIiOUA, Laga?ca. Muskit-Grass. Grama-Grass. 



B, oligo.stachya,Torr. Muskit-Grass. Grama. 



Common, or frequent, southwestward and in the Red river valley ; less frequent 

 east to Stillwater and the edge of Wisconsin. 



B. hirsuta, Lagasca. Muskit-Grass. Grjma. • 



Common through the south part of the state, extending north to Minneapolis and 

 the St. Croix river, Parry\ abundant at New Ulm and in Rock and Pipestone counties. 



This and the preceding are sometimes called Buffalo Grass in this state, a name 

 which more properly belongs to Buchloe. See pages 14 and 32 of Rothrock's Report 

 on the Botany of Wheeler's Surveys west of the One Hundredth Meridian for chemical 

 analyses of Festucaovinaandthe two foregoing species of Bouteloua, which with others 

 of this genus are commonly called Grama in the southwestern United States. 



B. raceiuosa, Lagasca. (B. curtipendula, Gray.) Muskit Grass. Grama. 

 Common through the south part of the state, especially southwestward ; likewise 

 in the Red river valley. 



toma, from which it differs in its shorter, erect (not dichotomous) culms, and m its 

 much larger flowers, and especially in the much longer, spreading, lateral awns. From 

 A. gracilis it differs in the shorter panicle, the longer upper leaves with sheathed 

 flowers, and in the flowers being twice as large. From A. kamosissima it differs ia 

 wanting the larger size, the diffusely branched habit, the much larger flowers with 3- 

 10 5-nerved glumes, and the sti'ong recurved middle awn of that species. Br. George 

 Vasey in the Botanical Gazette, vol, ix, p. 76 (May, 1884). 



*Akistida purpurea, Nutt. Perennial ; culms 6 to 15 inches high, simple, erect, 

 slender, mostly glabrous ; sheaths narrow, scabrous, exceeding the internodes, pilose 

 at the throat; leaves very narrow, convolute, !i to 10 inches long; panicle slender, 

 erect or flaccid, 3 to 6 inches long, loosely few-flowered ; glumes purplish, the upper 6 

 to 9 lines long, about twice exceeding the lower, and longer than the flower, bifld and 

 shortly awned; flower densely short-pilose at tlie pointed base, scabrous above, 6 lines 

 long, the awns equal or nearly so, separate to the base, not jointed, l to 2 inches long, 

 scabrous. Watson's Rep. in King's E.vpl. of the Fortieth Parallel. 



