No. 39. 
BOUTELOUA HIRSUTA Lagasca. 
Roots fibrous, czespitose. 
Culms erect, simple, or in var. minor geniculate and branching below. 
Leaves usually short, 1 to 4 inches long, narrow, sometimes ciliate on the mar- 
gins, produced into a long, fine point; lower sheaths short, upper longer, and with 
shorter blades. 
Panicle consisting of from 1 to 3 erect spikes, $ to 14 inches long. 
Spikelets about 3 lines long, hirsute, densely crowded on one side of the 
smooth rachis; this extended in a naked point beyond the flowers. 
Empty glumes unequal, lower about 1 line in length, narrowly lanceolate, | 
acute, smooth; upper about 23 lines long, lanceolate, acuminate, awn-pointed, wit 
4 row of dark or black glands on either side of the midrib, each one emitting a 
long hair; flowering glume 24 lines long, including the awns, nearly smooth, 
oblong, lower half entire, upper divided into 3 lobes, each terminating in a short 
awn. 
Palet narrower, entire, 2-nerved. 
Imperfect flower on a short, smooth pedicel, consisting of 3 awns and 3 scales, 
awus extending a little beyond the perfect flower. 
Puate XXXIX: 1, typical plant; 2, var. minor; 3, var. major; a, empty 
glumes; 6, perfect and imperfect flowers; c, flowering glume. 
Several forms are grouped under this species; the three principal ones being 
here illustrated. The species has a wide range, from Mexico northward to Mon- 
tana and east of the Mississippi in Illinois and Wisconsin. It is by no means as 
plentiful as B. oligostachya, and is less valuable as a forage grass, 
