MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 253 



rachis villous; spikelets 1 to 1.5 cm. 

 long, the narrow glumes and the 

 lemmas densely purplish or grayish- 

 villous, the lemmas with an awn 

 mostly 1 to 4 mm. long. % — 

 Open woods and gravelly flats, Alaska 

 to British Columbia; Montana, Wyo- 

 ming, and South Dakota (Black 

 Hills). 



7. Elymus hirtiflorus Hitchc. (Fig. 

 338.) Culms erect, tufted, 40 to 90 

 cm. tall, with slender creeping rhi- 

 zomes; blades firm, flat or usually 

 involute, glabrous beneath, 5 to 20 

 cm. long, 1 to 4 mm. wide when flat; 

 spike erect, 5 to 15 cm. long; spike- 

 lets 4- to 6-flowered; glumes firm, 

 hirsute, narrow, tapering into an awn 

 about as long as the body, the entire 

 length 1 to 1.5 cm.; lemmas hirsute, 

 sometimes sparingly so, the lower 8 

 to 9 mm. long, with an awn 5 to 10 

 mm. long. % — River banks, Wyo- 

 ming; Alberta. 



8. Elymus triticoides Buckl. 

 Beardless wild-rye. (Fig. 339.) 

 Culms usually glaucous, rarely pubes- 

 cent below spike, 60 to 120 cm. tall, 

 commonly in large colonies from ex- 

 tensively creeping scaly rhizomes; 

 ligule a truncate rim about 1 mm. 



Figure 338. — Elymus hirtiflorus. Spike, X 1; spikelet, 

 X 5. (Type.) 



long; blades mostly 2 to 6 mm. wide, 

 flat or soon involute ; spike erect, slen- 

 der to rather dense, rarely compound; 

 spikelets mostly 12 to 20 mm. long; 

 glumes very narrow to subulate, firm, 

 nerveless or 1- to 3-nerved, awn- 



Figure 339. — Elymus triticoides, X 1. (Cusick 763, Oreg.) 



