No. 20. 
ANDROPOGON SACCHAROIDES Swartz. 
Rootstock short. Roots strong. 
Culms tufted, smooth (nodes bearded or in some forms smooth), simple or 
branched, erect, 2 to 4 feet high, often with 5 or 6 joints. 
Lower leaves 1 foot or more long; blade flat, narrow, acuminate, somewhat scab- 
rous on both surfaces and on the margins; sheaths smooth, striate, shorter than 
the internodes, open; ligules broadly ovate, laciniate. 
nflorescence paniculate, oblong, about 4 inches long, composed of numerous 
(20 to 50) closely approximate and appressed sessile spike-like branches 1 inch or 
more long ; spikelets imbricated. 
Spikelets in pairs at the joints of the branches, one sessile and perfect, the other 
on a short pedicel and either male orimperfect. Perfect spikelets 2 lines long with 
2 outer hard glumes and 2 inner hyaline ones; first about 7-nerved, sparsel 
hairy, 2-toothed at the apex, second obscurely 3-nerved, third and fourth hyaline, 
latter terminating in a twisted awn sometimes 8 or 10 lines long. Male or sterile 
spikelet on a pedicel of about its own length, consisting of only i linear, pubescent, 
5- to 7-nerved, glume; pedicel covered with long, fine, white hairs. 
PLATE XX; a, perfect spikelet; b, both-the sterile and perfect spikelets. 
This species is common on rocky banks and borders of streams. It extends 
northward to southern Colorado and Kansas, and deserves trial as an agricultural 
grass for dry and sandy lands. There are several varieties, 
