GRIFFITHS THE 



GRAMA GRASSES. 



311 



Puebla, and Lloyd 105, from Hacienda de la Cedros were placed with the Pringle col- 

 lection. Later collections by myself, however, from the Valley of Mexico connect 

 the small, narrow-leaved plants represented by Pringle 8820, with my large, compar- 

 atively wide-leaved plant from Encinillas. The species appears to vary from the 

 large plant described above to a diminutive plant often not over 7 or 8 cm. high, 

 having narrow, rather rigid, mostly radical leaves. The smaller forms resemble B. 

 procumbens except that they are perennial, while the larger ones look more like single- 

 spiked plants of B. gracilis. 



The species has been collected at various places from northern Zacatecas to Orizaba 

 and is especially abundant in the Valley of Mexico although not at all common in 

 collections. Doubtless the common 

 form of the Valley of Mexico may be 

 found included with B. procumbens in 

 some herbaria. 



5. Bouteloua hirticulmis Scribn. 



Bouteloua hirticulmis Scribn. U. S. 

 Dept. Agr. Div. Agrost. Circ. 30 : 4. 

 1901. The type is T. S. Brandegee's 

 no. 11, collected September 29, 1899, 

 at Sierra de San Francisquito, Lower 

 California. 



DESCRIPTION. 



A cespitose, erect, stout perennial, 

 about 60 cm. high; culms simple, 

 densely hirsute-pubescent below but 

 naked above; sheaths short, striate, 

 glabrous or with a few scattered hairs; 

 ligule conspicuously cilia te-hairy; 

 blades 10 to 20 cm. long, flat, minutely 

 scabrous, tubercular-hairy near base; 

 spikes 2 or 3, apparently normally 2, 

 about 5 cm. long, upon short, curved, 

 woolly peduncles, the rachis projecting 

 l*to 2 cm. beyond the distal spikelets; 

 spikelets pectinate, numerous, 50 to 60, 

 about 6 mm. long; glumes lanceolate, 

 subulate-pointed, pubescent, the first 

 2.5 to 3 mm. long, the second 5 to 

 5.5 mm. long, the latter bearing upon the dorsal surface long papillose hairs, 1 to 3 mm. 

 in length, much like those of B. hirsuta; lemma 3-lobed, with short awns from the 3 

 nerves, the central lobe 1 to 1.5 mm. longer than the lateral pair, hairy, especially on 

 the nerves; palet 2-nerved, awnless, glabrous, narrowly ovate, 4 to 5 mm. long; rudi- 

 ment consisting of 3 scabrous awns, 3 to 4 mm. long, expanded and scale-like below, 

 the central slightly the longest, interspersed with 2 or 3 scales on a naked stipe 1 to 1.5 

 mm. long, bearing a few hairs at its apex; caryopsis not known. (Figure 33.) 



This can be looked upon as a robust, hirsute, hairy-culmed form of B. hirsuta. Its 

 tuberculate-hairy second glume and woolly culms are its distinguishing characteristics. 



Palmer's no. 201, and Nelson's no. 1259 are typical. Nelson's no. 3121 (Roadside 

 between Tuxtla and San Cristobal, Chiapas, Mexico, September, 1895, in U. S. 

 National Herbarium) includes B. hirsuta and B. hirticulmis mounted on the same 

 sheet, indicating that the collector considered them the same species and probably 



Fig. 33. — Bouteloua hirticulmis. a, Spikelet; b, c, lemma 

 and palet of first floret; d, rudiment, a, Scale 7.5; 

 b-d, scale 10. From type specimen. 



