No. 9. 

 STIPA SCRIBNERI Vasey. 



Root stock short, horizontal, with coarse fibrous roots. 



Culms tufted, erect, terete, smooth, 1-g- to 2^ feet tall, unbranched. 



Leaves; from base half as long- as the culm; of stem 3 or 4; sheaths smooth, 

 or lower ones slightly scabrous, nearly equaling or slightly exceeding the inter- 

 nodes, close; blade flat below, involute above toward the long tapering point, mid- 

 nerve inconspicuous, 1 to 2 lines wide, 4 to 10 inches long; ligule truncate, 1 line 

 long. 



Inflorescence an erect slender panicle, its base inclosed by the upper sheath, 

 narrow and close, 5 to 8 inches long; rachis slightly angular, not flexuous; branches 

 in twos or threes, appressed, 1 to 2 inches long, each bearing 2 to 4 spikelets on 

 short pedicels. 



Spikelets 1-flowered; empty glumes unequal, the first 6 to 7 lines, and second 

 5 lines long, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, both 3-nerved, smooth; floral glume 

 about 4 lines long, white-hairy, the hairs longer above forming a crown or tuft 1 

 line long; awn rather slender, 8 to 9 lines long, not hairy; stipe short, acute; palet 

 less than 1 line long, obtuse, and adherent to grain. 



Grain nearly cylindrical, yellow, opaque, 2 to 2^ lines long. 



Plate IX; a, spikelet dissected and enlarged. 

 Arizona and New Mexico. Generally in strong tufts. 



