GRASSES OF IOWA. 235 



E>\ii{rjstis pectinacea (Michs ) Steud. Scribner. Bull. U. S. Dept. 

 Agr. Div. Agros. 7: 249. /. 243. (3d ed.) 



Poa pectinacea Michx. PI. Bor. Am. 1: 69. 1803. 



DESCRIPTION'. 



Meadow Comb Grass. An erect perennial, l to 3 feet (s-i i dm.) 

 high, with a short, stout root-stock, and a large, spreading panicle. Sheaths 

 smooth or hairy in the upper part; ligule a fringe of hairs i to 3 lines 

 (4-6 mm.) long; leaf-blade 2 to 3 lines (4-6 mm.) wide, 6 to 14 inches 

 (i-l~3 dm.) long, more or less pilose on the upper surface. Panicle 6 

 to 30 inches (1^-8 dm.) lone;, the rather rigid, widely spreading or 

 deflexed branches bearded in the axils. Spikelets linear-lanceolate, \ to 

 1 line (ii-2 mm.) wide, 2 to 5 lines (4-10 mm.) long, five to twenty- 

 flowered; empty glumes f to 1 line (1T12 mm.) long, ovate or oblong, 

 subacute, scabrous on the keel; flowering glumes about 1 line (2 mm.) 

 long, strongly three-nerved, obtuse or rarely acute. Palea densely cili- 

 ate on the keels. Grain oblong-spherical, irregularly striate. July to 

 October. See figure 164, on page 233. 



Eragrostis pectinacea occurs in sandy or gravelly soil. Common on 

 Muscatine Island and sand dunes along the Mississippi River, in central 

 Iowa found in gravelly soil. It is not, however, abundant. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



loaa. Des Moines. 3282 Steamboat Rock ( Pammel ) ; Man- 

 chester, 722 (Ball); New Albin, 900 (Pammel); Muscatine (Rep- 

 pert); Waterloo (Hitchcock); Ames (Bessey, Hitchcock): Cedar 

 Rapids (Miss Hall) ; Des Moines, 309 (Carver) ; Cedar Rapids, Des 

 Moines, 1447 De Witt (Pammel) ; Des Moines County, Skunk River 

 (Bartsch) ; Keystone (Koch). 



North America. Massachusetts to Illinois (Dr. Geo. Vasey). 

 Wisconsin (La Crosse, D. S. Pammel and C. M. King, 3320, 3325; 

 Pammel), South Dakota, Nebraska (Crete and McCook, Pammel, 240, 

 399), Missouri (Carson Station, Eggert; Valley Park, Old Orchard 

 and St. Louis, Pammel), Kansas (Barber County, Carleton), Arkansas 

 (Miller County, Eggert), North Carolina (Dunn Mt., Small) to 

 Florida, Mississippi ( Starkville, Tracy; Biloxi, Eggert), Texas (Dal- 

 las, Reverchon). 



