258 



Fig. 252. EATONIA OBTUSATA (Michx.) A. Gray. Man.Bot. ed.2,558. 1856. 

 {Aira obtusata Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1:62. 1803.) EARLY BUNCH-GRASS.— 

 A tufted perennial 4.5-6 dm. m°-2°) high, with flat leaf-blades and rather 

 densely flowered, nodding panicles 5-15 cm. (2'-6') long. Culms erect, glabrous; 

 sheaths shorter than the internodes, usually scabrous and often pubescent; 

 ligulel-2mm. (i"-F) long; leaf-blades 2-22 cm. (l'-9') long, 2-8 mm. (l"-4'0 wide, 

 scabrous. Spikelets (c) crowded, 2.5-3 mm. {lk"-U") long; empty glumes (o) 

 often purplish, the first shorter than and about one-sixth as wide as the obtuse 

 or truncate second one; flowering flumes (6, d) narrow, obtuse, 1.5-2 mm. (f'-l") 

 long. — Low ground, chiefly along streams, usually in shade, Massachusetts and 

 Ontario to Assiniboia and British Columbia, south to Florida, Texas and south- 

 ern California. March to August. 



