22 Bulletin VII. 1. 



Tig'id, herbaceo-chartaceous, sharply two-keeled with narrow, 

 strongly inflexed margins, keels scabrous; second glume about the 

 length of the first, lanceolate, acuminate, or short-awned, one- 

 nerved, scabrous on the keel and more or less ciliate on the mar- 

 '^ins; third glume deep purple or violet, a little shorter than the 

 second, narrowly lanceolate, acute, the infolded margins ciliate on 

 the edge; fourth a little shorter than the third, narrowly oblong, 

 ciliate along the margins, more or less deeply bifid at the apex and 

 awned between the acute divisions; awn four to nine lines long, 

 the closely twisted basal portion (the column) barely exceeding 

 the outer glumes. 



Common throughout the State, usually in dry, more or less 

 sandy soil. It is valued in the mountain districts of East Tennes- 

 see for grazing, and is there known as Mountain Sedge-grass or 

 Little Blue-stem. It flowers from August to October. 



This species is quite variable in its technical characters, and 

 several forms and varieties have been characterized: 



1. Typica. Racemes in a long, strict, and usually much-branched 

 panicle, partly or wholly enclosed within the spathe Spikelets 

 three to three and one-half lines long. Sheaths usually pilose. 



2. Flexilis. Racemes long-exserted, spikelets smaller (less than 

 three lines). 



3. CcBsia. Sheaths and spathe pruinose. 



4. Serpentina. Rachis of the racemes strongly undulate. 



5. Simplicior. Branches simple with rarely more than a single 

 raceme. Spikelets four lines long. 



6. Lolioides. Spikelets four and one half to five lines long. 



2. Andropogon provincialis Lam. Big Blue-stem. 



Plate II. Figure 7. 



A stout perennial, two to five feet high, with rather thick ra- 

 cemes, two to five together, terminal on the culm and its branches. 

 Culms smooth, terete, often pruinose below the nodes, branched 

 above; branches single (rarely two or four together) simple. 

 Sheaths smooth or sometimes pilose, those of the sterile shoots 

 usually compressed-keeled; ligule very short (one-half to one line) 

 truncate; leaf-blade eight inches to two feet long, two to five lines 

 wide, tapering into long setaceous points, margins scabrous, and 

 often fimbriate near the base. Spathes usually about four inches 

 long, smooth, acuminate-pointed. Racemes at length long ex- 

 serted, two to eight together, closely approximate along the short- 

 ened common rachis, appearing digitate, more or less spreading, 

 densely flowered; joints about one-half the length of the sessile 

 spikelet, usually with a dentate appendage at the imperfectly cup- 

 shaped apex, somewhat flattened and ciliate along the edges, the 

 longer upper hairs one-half as long as the pedicel. Pedicellate 

 spikelet lanceolate, staminate, with four glumes; first glume lance- 

 olate, acuminateor mucronate pointed, serrulate-scabrousalong the 

 scarcely infolded margins, smooth on the back or punctate scab- 

 rous above, seven to eleven-nerved; callus naked cr shortly pilose; 

 second glume a little shorter than the first, lanceolate, acute, three 



