GRASSES OF IOWA. 31 



as long as the pedicel. Pedicellate spikelet lanceolate, staminate, with four 

 glumes; first glume lanceolate, acuminate or mucronate pointed, ser- 

 rulate-scabrous along the scarcely infolded margins, smooth on the back 

 or punctate scabrous above, 7-1 1 nerved; callus naked or shortly pilose; 

 second glume a little shorter than the first, lanceolate, acute, 3 to 5 

 nerved, the hyaline margins ciliate; third glume equalling the second, 

 the fourth somewhat shorter, both 1 to 3-nerved, lanceolate and acute. 

 Palea small. Sessile spikelet 3^ to 5| lines (7-1 imm.) long, narrow- 

 lanceolate, acute ; first glume coriaceous, very acute oY sometimes long 

 acuminate-pointed, apex minutely bimucronate, margins strongly in- 

 Hexed, keels aculeolate scabrous, the back punctate scabrous or smooth 

 below, callus barbate, the hairs about one-fourth as long as the glumes; 

 second glume equalling the first, lanceolate, boat-shaped, acuminate or 

 mucronate, one-nerved, keel scabrous, the narrow infolded and hyaline 

 margins ciliate; third glume a little shorter than the second, lanceolate, 

 imperfectly 3-nerved, the infolded margins ciliate; fourth glume some- 

 what shorter, lanceolate, more or less deeply bifid at apex, the divisions 

 acute, ciliate on the margins, 3-nerved near the base, awned ; awn six to 

 eight inches long, with the column slightly exserted from the glumes. 

 Palea one-half to two-thirds as long as its glume, fimbriate at apex. 

 Anthers yellow, one and one-half lines long. Stigmas purple. 



Common throughout the state. A common prairie grass, also 

 abundant in the alluvial bottoms of the Missouri river. August to Oc- 

 tober. A valuable forage plant originally extensively used for hay. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Ioiva. Slater (Fawcett) ; Steamboat Rock (Miss King) ; Ledges, 

 Boone County (Buchanan) ; Plymouth County (Brown) ; Charles 

 City (Pammel) ; Lansing 3158 and 301 1, Steamboat Rock 3013, 

 Postville 3353, Myron 31 10 (Miss King); Lawler (R. H. Rolfs); 

 Pilot Mound 3057 and 3060 (MacCorkindale and Miss King) ; Chari- 

 ton 768 (Mallory) ; Humboldt 645 (Wells) ; Mt. Pleasant 680 

 (Dr. Witte) ; Mt. Ayr 636 (Beard) ; Sioux City (Miss Wakefield) ; 

 Fayette (Fink) ; Marshalltown (Stewart) ; Ames (E. R. Wilson, Fair- 

 field, Hitchcock, Bessey, Beardslee, Crozier, Ball 118, Pammel 104); 

 Turin, Slater, South Dakota opposite Hawarden, Sioux City, Carroll, 

 Hawarden, De Witt 1459, Carnarvon 232, Muscatine (Pammel); 

 Emmet County 812 (Pammel and Cratty) ; Ledyard 757 (Pammel 

 and Cratty) ; Armstrong 1077 (Cratty) ; Winterset (Carver) ; Tabor 

 777 (Baldwin and Pammel) ; Boone County 842 (Steele) ; Charles 

 City 836 (Anderson) ; Belknap 824 (Rankin) ; Dallas 748 and 818 



