172 GRASSES OF IOWA. 



Atlantic states to Florida; southwest to Texas; Kentucky (Harlan 

 County, Kearney, 381) ; west to Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Wyoming, 

 Montana, and northward to Winnepeg. 



3. AGROSTIS SCABRA. 



Agrostis scabra^N\\\&. Sp. PI. 1: 370. 1798. Scribner. Grasses of Term. 

 Bull. Univ. Tenn. Agrl. Exp. Sta. 7: 77. /. 99. 1894. 



Cornucopiae hyemale Walt. Fl. Car. 73. 1788. 



Trichodium laxi folium Michx . Fl. Bor. 1: 42. 1803. 



Trichodium scabrum Muhl. Gram. 61. 1817. 



Agrostis hyemalis B. S. P. Prel. Cat. N. Y. 68. 1888. 



Agrostis hyemalis (Walt.) B. S. P. Beal. Grasses of N. A. 2: 327. 

 1896. Nash in Britton and Brown. 111. Fl. 1: 161. f..36S. 1896. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Fly Away Grass. Usually an annual ; erect or somewhat genicu- 

 late at the lower joints, 6 inches to 2^ feet (1-6 dm.) high. Sheaths 

 striate, smooth or scabrous; ligules 1 to 2 lines (2-4 mm.) long; leaf- 

 blade erect or ascending, ^ to f line (1-1^ mm.) wide, 2 to 4 inches (4- 

 8 cm.) long, conduplicate when dry, scabrous, especially on the margins 

 and upper surface. Panicles long and lax, the capillary, primary branches 

 two to a node, branched above the middle; the spikelets clustered toward 

 the ends of the ultimate branches. Empty glumes lanceolate, acute, 

 with scabrous keel, about f line (i-|- mm.) long, the upper one a little 

 shorter than the lower. Flowering glume rather faintly-nerved, shorter 

 than the empty glumes, awnless or very rarely awned on the back. 

 Palea none. A common grass in dry and sterile, as well as in moist, rich 

 lands. It is the earliest to bloom among our species of Agrostis, flower- 

 ing in May and June. 



The species is common throughout the state, frequent in sandy soil 

 but also growing in moist soil and upland prairies. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Ioiva. Steamboat Rock 3035, Spirit Lake 3365, Ames 3182, 

 Ledyard 1003 (Pammel) ; Steamboat Rock 3034 and 3044 (Miss King) 

 Marathon 3342 (Roberts); Wheatland, Vinton 21 (Ball); 857, Mt. 

 Pleasant (Mills); Durant, 1140 (Weaver); Ames (Carver); Hamil- 



