GRAMINE^E. (GRASS FAMILY.) 621 



ulate-awned. Stamens 3: anthers orange-colored or red. Rudimentary flowers 

 mostly 1 - .3-a\vned. Spikes solitary, raeemed or spiked; the rhachis somewhat 

 extended beyond the spikelets. (Named for Claudius Boutelou, a Spanish writer 

 upon floriculture and agriculture.) 



§ 1. CHONDROSIUM, Dcsv. Spikes pectinate, of very many spikelets, oblong 

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

 1 - 3 on a short pedicel, neutral, consisting of 1-3 scales and awns. 



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

 very narrow ; spikes 1 - 5, the rhachis glabrous ; glumes and lower fertile palet 

 sparingly sof -hairy ; the lobes awl-pointed ; sterile flower copiously villous-tiifled 

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

 (Atheropogon, Nutt.) — N. W. Wisconsin and westward. — Glumes obscurely 

 if at all papillose along the keel. Middle lobe of the lower palet 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, Laq.) 



2. B. hirsuta, Lagasca. Tufted, annual? (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 palet 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 

 hirtum, H. B. K.) — Sandy plains, Wisconsin, Illinois, and southwestward. 



§ 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. CUrtip6ndula, Gray. Culms tufted from perennial rootstocks 

 (l°-3° high) ; sheaths often hairy ; leaves narrow ; spikes £' or less in length, 

 nearly sessile, 30 to 60 in number in a loose general spike (8'- 15' long) ; flowers 

 scabrous ; the lower palet 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 fer- 

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

 curtipendula, Michx. Atheropogon apludiokles, Muhl. Eutriana curtipendula, 

 Trin.) — Dry hills and plains, S. New York to Wisconsin, and southward. 

 July -Sept. — Passes by transitions into, Var. aristosa, with spikes shorter; 

 sterile flower of a large saccate lower palet, awned at the 2-cleft tip and from the 

 lateral nerves, the middle awn exserted, and with a rudiment of an inner palet. 

 (Eutriana affinis, J. D. Hook.) — Illinois (Geyer), and southward. 



20. GYMNOPOGON, Beauv. Naked-beard Grass. (PI. 9.) 



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 lance-awl-shaped, keeled, almost equal, rather longer than the some- 

 what equal membranaceous palets ; 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 upper with the abortive rudiment at its base. 



