390 



CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL, HERBARIUM. 



The speciea is to be looked upon as a perennial B. barbata, a native of the west 

 coast of northern Mexico. The type is Palmer's Yaqui River specimen of 186!) in 

 the National Herbarium. Palmer 751, Alamos, Mexico, 1890 and W. G. Wright 1322 

 from the headwaters of Mazatlan River are distinctly stoloniferous, while Hitchcock 

 3552, Guaymas, Mexico, is simply geniculate and a much larger plant than any of 

 the others. The same is true of Chase 5509 from near Guaymas. 



15. Bouteloua eriopoda (Torr.) Torr. 



Chondrosium criopodum Torr. in Emory, Mil. Reconn. 154. 1848. 



Bouteloua eriopoda Torr. U. S. Rep. Expl. Miss. Pacif. 4: 155. 185G. Based upon 



Chondrosium criopodum. See also IT. S. Dept. 

 Agr. Div. Bot. Bull. 12 »: pi. 37. 1890; U. S. 

 Dept. Agr. Div. Agrost. Bull. 7 : 217./. 199. 1897. 

 Bouteloua brevifolia Buckl. Proc. Acad. Phila. 

 1862: 93. 1862. Asa Gray« reviews Buckley's 

 descriptions and refers this to B. eriopoda Torr. 

 and shows that it was based upon Wright's no. 748 

 and Fendler's no. 950 (not 946 as on ticket in the 

 Philadelphia Academy Herbarium). 



DESCRIPTION. 



A cespitose perennial, growing commonly in 

 large bunches, separated by intervals of a few 

 inches to a few feet of bare ground, or occasionally 

 a weedy annual, but seldom in shade of shrubs; 

 culms geniculate, rather weak, woolly, 40 to 60 

 cm. long, commonly branched, and in warmer 

 localities sparingly perennial, with close, striate, 

 smooth sheaths, small ciliate-fringed ligule, and 

 narrow, convolute, smooth blades; panicle race- 

 mose, 10 to 15 cm. long; spikes 3 to 8, commonly 

 4 or 5, 2 to 3 cm. long; spikelets 12 to 20, 7 to 10 

 mm. long, loosely pectinate, consisting of one 

 lower fertile floret and an upper rudiment; 

 glumes very unequal, the first about 3 mm., the 

 second about 7 mm. long, keeled, smooth, or the 

 second minutely scabrous at the apex; lemma 

 minutely hairy below, 3-awned, the lateral 

 awns very short, the central equaling those of 

 the rudiment, hispid, 2 mm. long; palet awnless, 

 acuminate, about 5 mm. long; rudiment consisting 

 of 3 equal, hispid awns 4 mm. long, united at base 

 by very minute scales and supported upon a slen- 

 der, smooth stipe 2 mm. long, hairy-tufted at each end; caryopsis cylindrical-oblong, 

 2.5 to 3 mm. long, 0.25 to 0.35 mm. wide, the scutellum covering three-fourths of the 

 ventral surface. (Plate 74, B, facing p. 388. Figure 44.) 



The lax, pectinate inflorescence and woolly culms readily distinguish this speciea. 

 In publications of the United States Department of Agriculture it has usually been 

 called "woolly-foot" but in portions of the Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico, where 



Fig. 44. — Bouteloua eriopoda. a, Spikelet; 

 6,c, lemma and palet of first floret; d, 

 rudiment ;c, two views and cross-section 

 of caryopsis. a, Scale 7.5; b-e, scale 10. 

 From Griffiths 7002. 



« Proc. Acad. Phila. 1862 : 334. 1863. 



