No. 45. 
BOUTELOUA STRICTA Vasey. 
Culms 2 to 24 feet high, unbranched, wiry, stiffly erect, smooth; base clothed 
with old, persistent, broad sheaths. 
Leaves few; blade erect, rigid, narrow, becoming setaceous-involute, 4 to 6 
inches long, scabrous on the upper surface; lower sheaths broad, loose, smooth, 
and short, upper becoming long and narrow (3 to 4 inches long); ligule very short, 
ciliate 
Inflorescence about 4 inches long, consisting of 5 or 6 erect or ap 
narrow, one-sided spikes, these ? to 1 inch long, densely crowded with the 30 to 50 
spikelets. 
Spikelets 2 lines long, including the awns. 
Empty glumes unequal, lanceolate, acute; lower one-half as long as the upper, 
nearly smooth; flowering glume 2 lines long, pubescent externally, oblong-lanceo- 
late, 3-lobed above, lobes awned, lateral lobes a little shorter than the the central 
one. 
Palet narrow, nearly as long as its glume, 2-nerved, 2-toothed at the apex. 
Imperfect flower consisting of 3 equal awns, with 2 or 3 imperfect glumes at the 
base, on a short pedicel with a tuft of soft hairs at its apex. 
PLATE XLV; a, spikelet; b, empty glumes; c, flowering glume, ‘seen from the 
back; d, palet; e, imperfect flower. 
This species differs from B. oligostachya in its more wiry culms, more rigid 
habit, setaceous, appressed leaves, and dense, appressed, and more numerous spikes. 
