GRIFFITHS THE GRAMA GRASSES. 



383 



Schultes, Kunth, and Steudel. A plant in the herbarium of the Botanic Garden at 

 Madrid bearing this name in Lagasca's hand, is what in this country we have been 

 calling B. polystachya. Of course this specimen is not the type, for Lagasca's first 

 herbarium was burned, but this specimen named by him and his description, so far 

 as it goes, applying to B. polystachya, leaves no doubt in my mind about the identity 

 of the species. 



Actinoehloa barbata Koem. & Schult. Syst. Veg. 2 : 420. 1817. Based upon Bou- 

 teloua barbata Lag. 



Eutriana? barbata Kunth, Rev. Gram. 1 : 96. 1829. Based upon Bouteloua barbata 

 Lag. 



Chondrosium polystachyum Benth. Bot. Voy. Sulph. 56. 1844. Through the kind- 

 ness of the authorities at the Koyal Botanic Gardens at Kew, I have been able to exam- 

 ine a liberal specimen of the type (Barclay, Magdalena Bay, Lower California). A 

 specimen of the same collection is in the National Herbarium. Attention should be 

 called to the fact that this is a very different species from the Palmer specimen « from 

 the Yaqui River region of Sonora, collected 

 in 1869, said by Munro to be "typical." 



Bouteloua polystachya Torr. U. S. Rep. 

 Expl. Miss. Pacif. 5 2 : 366. pi. 10. 1857. 

 Based upon Chondrosium polystachyum 

 Benth. 



Bouteloua pumila Buckl. Proc. Acad. 

 Phila. 1863 : 93. 1863. The type (Wright 

 754, Texas) is in the herbarium of the Phil- 

 adelphia Academy. 



Chrondrosium exile Fourn. Mex. PI. 

 2 : 137. 1881. The type (Berlandier 842) in 

 the Paris Herbarium is Bouteloua barbata. 

 It is referred there to the genus Chloris 

 and credited to Fournier, but so far as I 

 know was never published in that genus. 

 The specimen is a narrow-spiked, short- 

 awned form. The same number in the 

 Vienna Herbarium is the same species and 

 is named "Bouteloua barbata Rupr." - 



Chondrosium microstachyum Fourn. Mex. 

 PI. 2 : 138. 1881. The type (Bourgeau 

 667) is in the Paris Herbarium. Specimens of the same collection are also in the 

 herbarium of the St. Petersburg Botanical Garden and in the National Herbarium, 

 the former being labeled B. oligostachya. 



Bouteloua microstachya Dewey, Contr. Nat. Herb. 2: 531. 1894. Based on Chon- 

 drosium microstachyum Fourn. Dewey considers B. arenosa Vasey and B. polystachya 

 Benth. as in part synonymous with this. 



Fig. 3$.— Bouteloua barbata. a, Spikelet; b, c, 

 lemma and palet of first floret; d, e, rudimentary 

 lemma and palet of second floret; /, rudiment 

 of third floret, a, Scale 7.5; b-f, scale 20. From 

 type specimen of B. pumila. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Plants exceedingly variable in both size and general aspect, erect when growing 

 thickly, but prostrate when scattered, in favorable situations as much as 30 cm. high 

 (as in Griffiths 6095) or prostrate, the tuft covering 3 or 4 square feet of surface, or 

 consisting of single culms not over 3 cm. long; culms geniculate and freely branching 

 when luxuriant, but mostly simple, especially if on sterile soil; sheaths loose, striate, 

 smooth, comparatively short; blades short, flat, commonly 1 to 4 cm. long, divergent, 



a See Bouteloua sonorae, page 389. 



9368°— 12^ 



