GRIFFITHS THE GRAMA GRASSES. 381 



9. Bouteloua ramosa Scribn. 



• 



Bouteloua ramosa Scribn.; Vasey. U. S. Dept. Agr. Div. Bot. Bull. 12 *: pi. 44. 

 1890. No specimen is cited in the original description. Beal a cites Nealley's speci- 

 men from southwestern Texas. It is impossible now to locate the plant from which 

 Vasey drew up the description. However, it is certain that it was a Nealley specimen, 

 as Beal suggests. At any rate Vasey's figures leave no doubt as to the species, and there 

 are several Nealley specimens of this species in the National Herbarium. See also 

 U. S. Dept. Agr. Div. Agrost. Bull. 7: 218./. 200. 1897. 



Bouteloua oligostachya ramosa Scribn.; Beal, Grasses N. Amer. 2 : 418. 1896. Refer- 

 ence is made by Beal to the U. S. Dept. Agr. Div. Bot. Bull. 12 1 : pi. 44- 1890, for this 

 and B. ramosa (which see), but he cites Pringle 414 from Mexico under this variety. 

 The same thing is referred to in each case and the inclusion of it in two places is evi- 

 dently due to an oversight in editing. Palmer 1358 and Pringle 414 are also typical 

 of the species. 



The floral details of this species differ in no way from those of B. breviseta, but the 

 habit is quite different. The culms, while of the same general half-perennial char- 

 acter and freely branched, are more spreading and invariably geniculate. The species 

 grows on rough, stony, limy soils, from the lower Rio Grande region southward. 



It is more than probable that further study will prove this to be really a form of B. 

 breviseta, but there is not at the present time sufficient evidence available in collec- 

 tions to warrant making such a disposition formally. 



HERBARIUM SPECIMENS. 



Texas: Nealley 108, Presidio County; Chende Mountains; Presidio County; 108^, 



Sanderson, Pecos County. Bailey 340, Boquillas. 

 Mexico: Pringle 414, Chihuahua. Wilkinson 346, Santa Eulalia Mountains. Palmer 



1358, Monclora; 404, Saltillo. Rose & Painter 7729, Aguascalientes. 



10. Bouteloua parryi (Fourn.). 



Chondrosium parryi Fourn. Mex. PL 2: 150. 1881. Fournier citea as the type of 

 this species Parry and Palmer 923^, but this is evidently a misprint for 943 J. & 



Bouteloua polystachya vestita Wats. Proc. Amer. Acad. 18 : 177. 1883. Palmer 1357 

 Sierra Madre, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, August, 1880, in the Gray, Herbarium, is the type. 

 Parry and Palmer's no. 943t| cited by Watson is also in the National Herbarium. 



Bouteloua vestita Scribn. in Dewey, Contr. Nat. Herb. 2 : 531. 1894. Presumably 

 based on B. polystachya vestita Wats, since Watson is cited in parentheses, but no syno- 

 nyms are given. See also U. S. Dept. Agr. Div. Agrost. Bull. 7 : 220. /. 202. 1897. 



DESCRIPTION. 



A woolly-pubescent, short-lived perennial, erect or reclining, the geniculate culms 

 being simple or branched, cespitose or, when growing thickly, the individual culms 

 scattering; sheaths loose, striate, pubescent, the ligule reduced to a ciliate-hairy line, 

 with hairs a little more prominent than those on the edges of the sheaths; blades pube- 

 scent with long, scattered, minutely papillose hairs, 2 to 3 mm. long; spikes 4 to 8, 

 usually 5 or 6, bilateral, but the black peduncle so curved as usually to make them 

 appear unilateral, 2.5 to 3.5 cm. long; spikelets 40 to 65, pectinate, upon a slender, 

 papillose-hairy rachis, consisting of a lower fertile floret and one or more upper rudi- 

 ments; glumes keeled, the first smooth or sparingly pubescent at base, about 2 mm. 

 long, with a short awn, the second woolly, with minutely papillose hairs, 3 or 4 

 mm. long, with minutely scabrous awn about 0.7 mm. long; lemma 3 to 4 mm. long, 



a Grasses N. Amer. 2: 416. 1896. & See Proc. Amer. Acad. 18: 177. 1883. 



