180 BULLETIN 772, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Type species : Schedonnardus texanus Steud. 



Schedonnardus Steud., Syn. PI. Glum. 1:146. 1854. A single species de- 

 scribed, S. texanus, based on Drumiuond's no. 360 from Texas. This is /S. 



paniculatus (Nutt.) Trel. (Lcp- 

 turns paniculatus Nutt.). 



Spirochloe Lunell, Amer. 

 Midi. Nat. 4: 220. 1915. Pro- 

 posed for " Schedonnardus 

 Steud ... not thought per- 

 missible, being built on 

 Nardus." 



Schedonnardus panicu- 

 latus (fig. 10T), the only 

 species of the genus, is 

 found on prairies and 

 plains from Montana and 

 Illinois to Texas. The axis 

 of the inflorescence elon- 

 gates after flowering, be- 

 coming 1 to 2 feet long, 

 curved in a loose spiral. 

 The whole breaks away at 

 maturity and rolls before 

 the wind as a tumbleweed. 

 The species is a forage 

 grass, but the plants are 

 low and in the main form 

 only an inconsiderable pro- 

 portion of the total forage. 



89. BECKMANNIA Host. 



Spikelets 1-flowered, 

 rarely 2-flowered, laterally 

 compressed, subcircular, 

 nearly sessile and closely 

 imbricate, in two rows 

 along one side of a slender 

 continuous rachis, disartic- 

 ulating below the glumes, 



FIG. 106. Willkommia texana. 



Plant, X I ; two views of spikelet and two views of 

 floret, X 5. 



