No. 45. 

 BOUTELOUA STRICTA Vasey. 



Culms 2 to 2| feet high, unbranched, wiry, stiffly erect, smooth; base clothed 

 with old, persistent, broad sheaths. 



Leaves few; blade erect, rigid, narrow, becoming setaceous-involute, 4 to 6 

 inches long, scabrous on the upper surface; lower sheaths broad, loose, smooth, 

 and short, upper becoming long and narrow (3 to 4 inches long); ligule very short, 

 ciliate. 



Inflorescence about 4 inches long, consisting of 5 or 6 erect or appressed, 

 narrow, one-sided spikes, these f to 1 inch long, densely crowded with the 30 to 50 

 spikelets. 



Spikelets 2 lines long, including the awns. 



Empty glumes unequal, lanceolate, acute; lower one-half as long as the upper, 

 nearly smooth; flowering glume 2 lines long, pubescent externally, oblong-lanceo- 

 late, 3-lobed above, lobes awned, lateral lobes a little shorter than the the central 

 one. 



Palet narrow, nearly as long as its glume, 2-nerved, 2-toothed at the apex. . 

 Imperfect flower consisting of 3 equal awns, with 2 or 3 imperfect glumes at the 

 base, on a short pedicel with a tuft of soft hairs at its apex. 



Plate XLV; a, spikelet; 6, empty glumes; c, flowering glume, seen from the 

 back; d, palet; e, imperfect flower. 



This species differs from B. oligostachya in its more wiry . culms, more rigid 

 habit, setaceous, appressed leaves, and dense, appressed, and more numerous spikes. 



