Sporobolus. GR AMINES. 269 



Var. flexuosus, Thurb. Panicle elongated, somewhat narrow but open, the 

 rhachis very slender and flexuose, the shorter rather distant rays spreading and 

 sometimes reflexed ; spikelets usually much darker colored than in the normal form. 

 - Vasey, Bot. Wheeler's Expl. 282. 



Sierra Nevada (Torrey) ; Colorado River (Newberry) ; the variety. The typical form, which has 

 not yet been collected within the State, occurs in Oregon {Hall) and in the valleys of Northern 

 Nevada, in Colorado and the Rocky Mountains, eastward to New England, and southward to 

 New Mexico and Texas. An annual, with a rather narrow panicle, which is sometimes very 

 slowly liberated from the upper sheath ; in the variety it is very slender and wavy, but there is 

 no other difference. 



2. S. airoides, Torr. Culms forming large tufts, clothed below by the dead 

 sheaths, rarely branched at base, 2 to 3 feet high, somewhat rigid, smooth : leaves 

 very pale, convolute and tapering to a filiform apex, those of the radical tuft about 

 half equalling the culm, those of the culm 4 or 5, the uppermost reduced to a mere 

 filiform appendage to the sheath less than an inch long ; ligule nearly obsolete ; 

 sheaths smooth with a few long hairs at the throat, the lower two overlapping, the 

 others shorter than the internodes, the uppermost dilated and loose : panicle broadly 

 pyramidal, soon exserted, 6 to 12 inches long, few-flowered; rays solitary or in 

 pairs, slender, spreading or reflexed, with rather distant branches, which are naked 

 below : spikelets a line long, brownish, on rather longer pedicels : glumes rather 

 obtuse, the lower narrower and J to ^ the length of the upper : floret slightly longer 

 than the upper glume ; palets about equal. Marcy's Rep. 300. Agrostis airoides, 

 Torr. in Ann. Lye. N. York, i. 151. Vilfa airoides, Steud. Syn. Gram. 162 ; Wat- 

 son, 1. c. S. (Vilfa) diffusissimus, Buckl. Proc. Acad. Philad. 1862, 90. 



San Joaquin Valley (Bolamler) ; Fort Mohave, Cooper, Lemmon. Extends eastward to Nebraska 

 and southward to New Mexico and Texas, growing chiefly in alkaline soils. A rather showy 

 perennial, on account of its remarkably pale foliage and broad brownish or brown-purple panicles. 

 Mr. C. J. Croft, U. S. Army, states (Proc. Calif. Acad. iii. 206) that it is very abundant in the 

 Gila Valley, and that animals eat it readily when green. It is, however, said to be a powerful 

 diuretic. 



* * Spikelets less than a line long : glumes nearly equal. 



3. S. ramulosus, Kunth. Annual, the culms tufted, 3 to 8 inches high, very 

 slender and branched below: leaves from \ to 2 inches long, flat or involute, sca- 

 brous on the margins ; ligule short, obtuse, often split ; sheaths very loose, mostly 

 longer than the internodes : panicle very long for the size of the plant, constituting 

 three-fourths of its height, the capillary few-flowered mostly solitary rays rather dis- 

 tant and spreading, the secondary branches 1-2- (rarely 3-) flowered : spikelets less 

 than \ line long, on much longer pedicels : glumes nearly equal and mostly eiliate- 

 fringed on the margin, at least at the apex : floret J or \ longer than the glumes ; 

 palets nearly equal, the lower somewhat acute and scabrous on the back. Kunth, 

 Enum. i. 215, and Suppl. 172. Vilfa ramulosa, HBK. Nov. Gen. i. 137, t. 684. 

 Agrostis minutissima, Steud. Syn. Gram. 171. 



Mono Lake (Bolandcr) ; banks of the Truckee River ( Watson) ; Colorado, New Mexico, Texas 

 and Mexico. The spikelets are often brownish or lead-colored, and the glumes sometimes lack 

 the fringe of hairs, which is usually conspicuous. The leaves and sheaths soon wither and in 

 some specimens there is little besides the panicle. 



4. S. asperifolius. Culms 6 to 15 inches long, branched, decumbent at base 

 and by taking root at the joints forming broad matted tufts : leaves flat, 1 to 3 

 inches long, about a line broad, scabrous, especially on the margins and upper 

 surface ; ligule very short, truncate ; sheaths smooth, loose, much crowded and over- 

 lapping below and longer than the internodes : panicle included at base, open, 3 to 5 

 inches long, pyramidal or ovoid in outline, the scabrous rays solitary or in pairs, 

 bearing nearly to the base 3 - 4-flowered capillary branches : spikelets less than a 

 line long, on pedicels 6 lines long : glumes nearly equal, acute, minutely scabrous : 

 floret slightly exceeding the glumes, the lower palet with sometimes a minute mucro 



