416 



CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



culms, having profuse proliferations at each node. Rooting often occurs on these 

 nodes making the plants appear stoloniferous, and a short scaly rootstock is sometimes 

 seen, as in the Hitchcock specimen collected at Triscornia, Cuba, March 23, 1906. 

 The Tracy specimen, mentioned below, has spikes with very long awns closely 

 resembling those of B. radicosa. See discussion under B. americana. 



HERBARIUM SPECIMENS. 



West Indies: Wright 739, Cuba; Hitchcock 452, Triscornia, Cuba; 460, Playa de 

 Cojimar, Cuba. Tracy 9088, Triscornia. Sintcnis 2269, 2203, and 1959, Porto 



Rico. Curtiss 546, Habana, Cuba. Duss 

 1326, Martinique. Heller 60o7, Porto Rico. 

 Leon 293 ana 861. Habana. 



33. Bouteloua aisticha (H. B. K.) Benth. 



Dineba diiaricata Beauv. Ess,Agrost. 160. 

 1812. No description is given; the name 

 appears only in the index, where in his pri- 

 vate copy of this work Beauvois has written 

 "=disticha, " which I interpret to mean 

 Polyodon distichum H. B. K. 



Polyodon distichum H. B. K. Nov. Gen. & 

 Sp. 1 : 175. pi. 55. 1816. I consider the 

 specimens seen to be easily identified from 

 Kunth's figures and description. 



Eutriana polyodon Trin. Gram. Unifl. 242. 

 1824. Based upon Polyodon distichum 

 H.B.K. 



Atheropogon distichus Spreng. Syst. Veg. 

 1 : 294. 1825. Based upon Polyodon disti- 

 chum H. B. K. 



Bouteloua disticha Benth. Journ. Linn. Soc. 

 Bot. 19:105. 1881. Based upon Polyodon 

 distichum H. B. K. See also Field Mus. Bot. 

 3 : 53. 1903. 



GJ 



DESCRIPTION. 



An erect, cespitose perennial, about 30 

 cm. high, with sparingly branched culms; 

 sheaths striate, papillose-hairy, rather loose; 

 blades comparatively broad, flat, scabrous 

 on the edges, with conspicuous papillose 

 hairs, especially toward the base and on the 

 edges; ligule a rather conspicuous collar 

 with a fringe of ciliate hairs; inflorescence 

 racemose; spikes about 25 in number; bilat- 

 eral but sometimes appearing unilateral, 

 about 1.5 cm. long including awns, spike- 

 lets 5 to 8, not pectinate, but more or less 

 fascicled, the lower being small and mostly rudimentary, but the upper more 

 perfectly developed, the upper florets of the spikelels above the two lower ones 

 usually with long-awned lemmas so disposed as to make the spike appear bilaterally 



Fig. GO.— Bouteloua disticha. a, Spikelet; 6, c, 

 lemmaand palet of first floret; d, rudimentary 

 floret, a, Scale 5; b-d, scale 10. From Schott 

 741 in Field Museum Herb. 



