

420 



CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



Eutriana racemosa Trin.; Fourn. Mex. PI. 2 : 141. 1881. A name only. According 

 to Hitchcock's notes on the Trinius Herbarium, Trinius's specimen labeled E. racemosa 

 is there put in the cover with B. curtipendula, to which species it belongs. (See Tria- 

 thcra gracilis under Triaena juncea.) 



Atheropogo7i affinis Fourn. Mex. PI. 2: 141. 1881. Based upon Eutriana affinis 

 Hook. 



DESCRIPTION. 



A tall, erect, cespitose perennial, 50 to 80 cm. high, spreading by strong, scaly, 

 creeping rootstocks; sheaths rather close, prominently striate, smooth, the ligule 

 cilia te-fringed; blades abundant, 10 to 30 cm. long, smooth or very minutely scabrous, 

 about equally distributed over the culm; panicle racemose, 15 to 25 cm. long, with 



flattened axis; spikes 35 to 50, 

 bilaterally arranged on the flat- 

 tened axis, but the delicate pe- 

 duncles so twisted and curved as 

 to make them unilateral, 1 to 2 

 cm. long; spikelets bilateral on 

 a flattened raehis, but not pecti- 

 nate, 5 to 8, consisting of one 

 fertile floret and a rudiment; 

 glumes scabrous-keeled, the first 

 4 to 5 mm., the second about 7 

 mm. long; lemma minutely 3- 

 awned, the central awn but little 

 longer than the lateral, 5 to 6 mm. 

 long, smooth to slightly scabrous 

 on the nerves toward the apex; 

 palet acuminate, scabrous above; 

 the rudiment reduced to a min- 

 ute scale with a delicate scabrous 

 awn, and a rudimentary palet 

 consisting of 2 very delicate awns; 

 caryopsis elliptical, about 4.5 

 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide, the 

 scutellum covering two-thirds to 

 three-fourths of the ventral sur- 

 face. (Plate 69, A, facing p. 345; 

 82, B, facing p. 413. Figure 63.) 

 The common "side-oat grama" 

 has a distribution in area second 

 only to B. hirsuta. It is abun- 

 dant from Illinois and Ontario westward and southward far into South America 

 and has been collected as far east as New York and Connecticut. It is an im- 

 portant native forage in many places. Being of good quality and a large, vigorous 

 grower, it is one of the most promising species for domestication, but, like all the others 

 of this genus, it has the important disadvantage of poor seed habits. Besides being 

 produced in small amount, the seed is difficult of separation from the chaff. In all 

 attempts that have been made to establish meadows of it — and there have been a num- 

 ber in an experimental way — no attempts have been made to thrash the seed at all. 

 The spikes, which readily separate from the culms of maturity, have been gathered 

 and sown. 



-> ■ 



Fig. 63. — Boutcloua curtipendula. a, Spikelet; 6, c, lemma 

 and palet of first floret; d, rudimentary second floret; e, two 

 views and cross section of caryopsis; /, g, lemma and rudi- 

 ment from a different plant, a, Scale 5; b-g, scale 8. a-«, 

 From Griffiths 7201; /, g, from Griffiths 7071. 



