No. 98. 

 ELYMUS CONDENSATUS Presl. Eel. Ha?nk. i. 265 (1830). 



Plant perennial, often in bunches, usually glaucous throughout, from a strong 

 rootstock. 



Culms erect, nearly smooth, or pubescent near the nodes, leafy nearly to the pan- 

 icle, 5 to 10 feet tall, and in the larger specimens \ inch thick. 



Leaves of the culm 4 to 8; sheaths rather loose, half open at the throat, nearly 

 smooth, often exceeding the internodes; blades flat, or involute and rigid toward the 

 long, tapering points, hispid or nearly smooth ; 3 to 12 lines wide, 10 to 20 inches 

 long ; ligule obtuse, 1 to 2 lines long. 



Inflorescence an erect, spicate panicle, usually dense, ^ to 1 inch thick and 6 to 12 

 inches long, the smaller, more common forms with 2 to 5 spikelets sessile or nearly 

 sessile at each node of the nearly smooth rachis, the larger forms with some of the 

 spikelets on appressed rays 1 to 2 inches long. 



Spikelets 3- to 6-flowered, 6 to 8 lines long; empty glumes subulate, rigid, hispid, 

 the second slightly broadened and 3-nerved below, nearly equal, 5 to 7 lines long ; 

 floral glume lance-ovate, acute or 3-toothed at the apex, often short-awned, hispid- 

 ciliate on the margins and nerves, 5- to 7-nerved, 4 to 5 lines long; palet lance-oblong, 

 2-toothed at the apex, slightly hispid on the 2 keels and minutely fimbriate on the 

 upper margins, nearly equaling the glume; stamens 3, included; ovary pubescent, 

 with 2 branching stigmas; lodicules 2, fringed, 1 line long; internode of the rachilla 

 clavate, finely strigose-pubescent. 



Plate XCVIII; a, spikelet; b, empty glumes; c, floral glume, dorsal view. 



California to Washington, and eastward to Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mex- 

 ico. Exceedingly variable in general size and in the form of the panicle. Valuable 

 as .a forage plant, and good for hay if cut before it becomes too coarse. 



