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CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



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24. Bouteloua texana S. Wats. 



Bouteloua (Polyodon) texana S.Wats. Proc. Amer. Acad. 18: 196. 1883. The first 

 specimen cited, Berlandier 1535, which I accept as the type, I have been unable to 

 find in the Gray Herbarium. Duplicates of Hull 771 and Wright 752, which are cited 



by Watson, are in the v 



National Herbarium. 



See also U. S. Dept. Agr. 



Div. Agrost. Bull. 7 : 215. 



/. 197. 1898. 



Polyodon texanus Nash 



in Small, Fl. Southeast. 



U. S. 138. 1903. 



DESCRIPTION. 



An erect, cespitose per- 

 ennial, 20 to 30 cm. high, 

 usually growing in scat- 

 tering bunches among 

 other grasses, seldom oc- 

 cupying areas exclu- 

 sively ; culms simple, 

 erect; sheaths rather close, 

 smooth, striate, with a 

 small ligule bearing a few 

 scattered hairs or a ciliate 

 fringe; blades narrow, in- 

 volute, about 10 cm. long, 

 sparingly pubescent with 

 long, papillose hairs on the 

 edges and especially on 

 the upper surface, the 

 hairs less conspicuous 

 below; inflorescence race- 

 mose, 4 to 5 cm. long; 

 spikes 6 to 8, about 1 cm. 

 long, on short, pubescent 

 peduncles 1 mm. long, eas- 

 ily separable and drop- 

 ping off entire; spikelets 

 not pectinate, crowded, 

 consisting of a lower fertile 

 floret and 2 upper rudi- 

 ments, or often the entire 

 spikelet rudimentary; 

 glumes unequal, lanceo- 

 late, acuminate, hairy, the 

 first 3 to 4 mm., the sec- 

 ond about 6 mm. long, short-awned; lemma about 6 mm. long over all, sparingly 

 hairy on the nerves, bearing 3 equal, hispid awns; palet 4 to 5 mm. long; ovate, 

 acuminate or with 2 very short awns; lower rudiment of 3 equal, hispid awns 

 about 7 mm. long, united at their bases by rudimentary glumes, and having a 

 rudimentary, cleft palet 2 to 3 mm. long, the upper rudiment of the same nature but 

 smaller in all its parts and usually with no palet; caryopsis about 2 mm. long, 0.6 

 mm. wide, flat on the dorsal surface, the scutellum covering about seven-eighths 

 of the entire ventral surface. (Plate 80, B, facing p. 402. Figure 53.) 



Fig. 53. — Bouteloua texana. a, Spikelet; 6, c, lemma and palet of 

 first floret; d, c, rudimentary lemma and palet of second floret; 

 /, rudimentary third floret; g, two views and cross section of 

 caryopsis. o, Scale 7.5; b-g, scale 10. From Griffiths 6370. 



