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MISC. PUBLICATION 200, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



plains, open woods, and rocky slopes, 

 South Dakota to British Columbia, 

 south to Missouri, Texas, California, 

 and Mexico. At high altitudes plants 

 often dwarf. Softly pubescent plants 

 have been differentiated as S. cine- 

 reum J. G. Smith (the pubescence 

 whitish) and S. velutinum Piper; 



short-awned plants as S. insular e J. 

 G. Smith and S. marginatum Scribn. 

 and Merr.; rather small plants with 

 unusually slender awns as S. minus J. 

 G. Smith, and tall plants with coarse 

 spikes as S. brevifolium J. G. Smith, 

 S. longifolium J. G. Smith, and S. 

 montanum J. G. Smith. 



Figure 357. — Sitanion jubatum. Pair of spikelets, X 2. (Type.) 



48. HYSTRIX Moench 



Spikelets 2- to 4-flowered, 1 to 4 at each node of a continuous flattened 

 rachis, horizontally spreading or ascending at maturity; glumes reduced to 

 short or minute awns, the first usually obsolete, both often wanting in the 

 upper spikelets; lemmas convex, rigid, tapering into long awns, 5-nerved, the 

 nerves obscure except toward the tip ; palea about as long as the body of the 

 lemma. Erect perennials, with flat blades and bristly, loosely flowered spikes. 

 Type species, Elymus hystrix L. ( Hystrix patula) . Hustrix, Greek name for the 

 porcupine, alluding to the bristly spikes. The species have little forage value, as 



