376 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



Actinochloa gracilis Willd.; Roem. & Schult. Syst. Veg. 2: 418. 1827. Based upon 

 Chondrosium gracile H. B. K. 



Atheropogon oligostachyum Nutt. Gen. PI. 1 : 78. 1818. 



Eutriana gracilis Trin. Gram. Unifl. 240. 1824. Based upon Actinochloa gracilis 

 Willd. 



Atheropogon gracilis Spreng. Syst. Veg. 1 : 293. 1825. Based upon Chondrosium gra- 

 cile H. B. K. 



Eutriana? oligostachya Kunth, Rev. Gram. 1 : 96. 1829. Based upon Atheropogon 

 oligostachyus Nutt. 



Bouteloua gracilis Lag.; Steud. Nom. Bot. ed. 2. 1 : 219. 1840. Based upon Chon- 

 drosium gracile H. B. K. 



Chondrosium oligostachyum Torr. in Marcy, Expl. Red Riv. 300. 1852. Based upon 

 Atheropogon oligostachyum Nutt. 



Bouteloua oligostachya Torr.; A. Gray, Man. ed. 2. 553. 1856, see also U. S. Dept. 

 Agr. Div. Bot. Bull. 12 1 : pi. #.1890; Britt. & Brown, Illustr. Fl. 1 : 180./. 412. 

 1896; U. S. Dept. Agr. Div. Agrost. Bull. 7 : 222./. 204. 1897 and op. cit, 20 : 106 

 /. 80. 1900. 



Bouteloua oligostachya intermedia Vasey, Grasses U. S. 33. 1883. A name only. No 

 specimen so marked can be found in the National Herbarium. 



Bouteloua oligostachya? major Vasey, Descr. Cat. Grasses U. S. 62. 1885; Dewey, 

 Contr. Nat. Herb. 2 : 531. 1894; Beal, Grasses N. Amer. 2 : 418. 1896. 



Bouteloua major Vasey, Bull. Torrey Club 14 : 9. 1887. Vasey publishes a name 

 only and refers to specimens previously distributed under it. He also states that 

 this is a variety of B. oligostachya. The type is a specimen cultivated from seed col- 

 lected by Palmer in Chihuahua, Mexico, in 1886. 



Bouteloua stricta Vasey, Bull. Torrey Club 15 : 49. 1888. A very brief description 

 is given; a fuller description is furnished later. The type is-C. G. Nealley, without 

 number, western Texas, 1887. The species commonly assumes in the southwest the 

 form represented by Vasey's type. 



Bouteloua oligostachya pallida Scribn.; Beal, Grasses N. Amer. 2 : 418. 1896. Pringle 

 407 is the duplicate type in the National Herbarium. There appears to be no good 

 reason for recognizing such a variety. Pallid and dark-colored forms may be found 

 in nearly all species of the genus. 



DESCRIPTION. 



A stout, erect, smooth, cespitose perennial, forming a rough sod in the north, but 

 usually in isolated tufts in the south and much larger and ranker in growth; culms 

 branched only at the very base if at all, sheaths loose, striate, smooth; ligule reduced 

 to a line with at most only a few scattered hairs; blades linear, rather abundant, 

 about 5 to 10 cm. long, 1 to 2 mm. wide, flat, minutely scabrous-margined; spikes 

 normally 2, often 1 or 3 or 4, seldom 5 or 6, very variable in length, commonly above 

 3 cm.,& more or less recurved in age with no projecting sterile rachis; spikelets pec- 

 tinate, on short, minutely pubescent pedicels, numerous, often as many as 80, con- 

 sisting of a fertile flower and a rudiment; glumes lanceolate, short-awned, keeled, 

 minutely scabrous, the lower 3 to 3.5 mm. long, the upper 5 to 6 mm. long; lemma 

 about 6 mm. long, pubescent, 3-awned, the central awn slightly longer, all hirsute; 

 palet about 5 mm. long, shortly 2-awned from the nerves, the latter slightly hirsute 

 above; rudiment consisting of 3 scabrous, nearly equal awns with 2 or 3 scales at their 

 bases all supported on a short stipe, 1 to 1.3 mm. long, hairy-tufted at base and apex; 

 caryopsis 2.5 to 3 mm. long, 0.5 mm. wide, concave on the dorsal and sharply convex 



a U. S. Dept. Agr. Div. Bot. Bull. 12 1 : pi. 45. 1890. 



b One specimen without data from Thurber's herbarium in Herb. Mo. Bot. Gard. 

 has spikes 9 cm. long. 



