No. 16. 
HETEROPOGON CONTORTUSR. & 8. 
Rootstock short. Roots stout. 
Culms tufted, smooth, branching above, erect, about 3 feet high. 
Leaves 6 to 12 inches long, upper ones gradually shorter; blade flat, upper sur- 
face and margins rough, lower surface smooth; sheath smooth, much flattened. 
Inflorescence spicate, cylindrical, about 2 inches long without the awns, main 
rachis smooth. 
Spikelets 3 to 5 lines long, in pairs, lower sessile and perfect, upper on a short 
pedicel, and staminate only. Male spikelets turned to one side of the spike, almost 
concealing the fertile ones. 
Gluwmes in the female spikelets 4, outer hard, hairy, convolute; second much 
narrower, hard, 3-nerved; third very thin, hyaline, smaller; fourth hyaline at the 
base, above extended into a hard twisted and bent awn 2 to 3 inches long or 
more. Glumes of the male spikelet 4; first ovate-lanceolate, flattish, keeled near 
the margin, thick, green, ciliate, many-nerved, margins thin; second thinner, nar- 
rower, 3-nerved, ciliate on the margin; third and fourth hyaline, somewhat 
shorter. 
Stamens 3. Styles 2. 
PLATE XVI; a, pair of spikelets, the upper male, the lower female, with the long 
twisted and pubescent awn; 6, a male flower spread open to show the age The 
fourth glume is omitted. 
This grass furnishes a large amount of foliage, and is deserving of trial in cul- 
tivation. 
