GRAMINEJE. (GRASS FA3IILY.) 553 



1. CHONDROSIUM, Desv. Spikes pectinate, of very many spikelets, oblong 

 or linear, very dense, solitary and terminal or few in a raceme : sterile flowers 1-3 

 on the summit of a short pedicel, neutral, consisting of I -3 scales and awns. 



1. B. OligOStlkcSiya, Torr. Glabrous, perennial (6'- 12' high) ; leaves 

 very narrow; spikes 1-5, the rhaehis glabrous; glumes and lower fertile palea 

 sparingly soft-hairy ; the lobes awl-pointed ; sterile flower copiously villous-tufted at 

 the summit of the naked pedicel, the 3 awns equalling the larger glume. 

 (Atheropogon, Nutt.) W. Wisconsin. 1 ? and westward. Glumes obscurely 

 if at all papillose along the keel. Middle lobe of the lower palea 2-cleft at the 

 tip. Sterile flowers often 2, the second mostly a large awnless scale, becoming 

 hood-like and coriaceous. (Near B. gracilis : perhaps B. juncifolia, Lag.) 



2. B. llii'SUta, Lagasca. Tufted from an annual? root (8' -20' high); 

 leaves flat, lance-linear, papillose-hairy or glabrous ; spikes 1 - 4 ; upper glume 

 hispid with strong bristles from dark warty glands ; lower palea pubescent, 3-cleft 

 into awl-pointed lobes ; sterile flower and its pedicel glabrous, the 3 awns longer than 

 the glumes and fertile flower. (Atheropogon papillosus, Engelm. Chondrosium, 

 hirtiim, //. B. K.) Sandy plains, Wisconsin, Illinois, and south westward. 



2. ATHEROPOGON, Muhl. Spikes short, numerous in a long and virgate 

 one-sided spike or raceme, spreading or reflexed, each of few (4-12) spikelets: 

 sterile flowers neutral, rudimentary. 



3. B. CUrtipeildllEa. Culms tufted from perennial rootstalks (l-3 

 high) ; sheaths often hairy ; leaves narrow ; spikes ^ or less in length, nearly 

 sessile, 30 to GO in number in a loose general spike (8'- 15' long) ; flowers 

 scabrous ; the lower palea of the fertile with 3 short awl-pointed teeth ; sterile 

 flower reduced to a single small awn, or mostly to 3 awns shorter than the fertile 

 flower, and 1 or 2 small or minute scales. (B. raccmosa, Lagasca. Chloris 

 curtipcndula, Michx. Atheropogon apltidioides, Muhl. Eutriana curtipendula, 

 Trin.) Calcareous dry hills and plains, S. New York to Wisconsin, and south- 

 ward. July -Sept. Passes by transitions into 



Var. ai'istosa. Spikes mostly shorter; sterile flower of a large saccate 

 \ower palea, awned at the 2-cleft tip and from the lateral nerves, the stout mid- 

 dle awn often exsertcd, and sometimes with a rudiment of an inner palea. 

 (Eutriana aflinis, J. D. Hook.) Illinois (Gcyer), Penn. ? and southward. 



19. OYMNOPOOOW, Beauv. NAKED-BEARD GRASS. 



Spikelets of one perfect flower, and the rudiment of a second (consisting of 

 an awn-like pedicel mostly bearing a naked bristle), sessile and remotely alter- 

 nate on long and filiform rays or spikes, which form a crowded naked raceme. 

 Glumes lauce-awl-shaped, keeled, almost equal, rather longer than the somewhat 

 equal membranaceous palere ; of which the lower is cylindrical-involute, with 

 the midrib produced from just below the 2-cleft apex into a straight and slender 

 bristle-like awn ! the irjp-T with the abortive rudiment at its base. Stamens 3. 

 Stigmas pencil-form, purple. Leaves short and fiat, thiekish, l'-3' long. 

 (Name composed of yvfj.i-os> naked, and T>a>ya>v, a beard, alluding to the reduc- 

 tion of the abortive flower to a bare awn.) 

 47 



