MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



143 



at base; panicle 5 to 15 cm long, the rigid simple branches ascending, 

 loosely flowered, 5 to 8 cm long; spikelets pale or purplish, 6- to 12- 

 flowered, 8 to 12 mm long, the pedicels about 1 mm long; glumes 

 acute, 3 and 5 mm long; lemmas rounded on the back, rather loosely 

 imbricate, obtuse, somewhat lacerate, about 4 mm long. % — 

 Alkali soil, Arizona (Sulphur Springs Valley and Wilcox), New Mexico 

 • Las Playas); Mexico. 



Scribner 6 quotes Tourney as follows: "This species is one of the 

 most abundant grasses in the extreme alkaline portions of Sulphur 

 Springs Valley, where the large rootstocks in many places bind the 

 shifting sands. It rarely flowers, and its superficial appearance, 



Figure 270.— Eragrostis sestilispica. Panicle, X 1; floret, X 10. (Swallen 1791, Tex.) 



without flowers, is much the same as our common salt grass (Distichlis 

 s-picata). It is a hard, rigid grass, but furnishes a large part of the 

 forage of Sulphur Springs Valley, when other grasses are eaten off or 

 are cut short by drought." 



2. Eragrostis sessilispica Buckl. (Fig. 270.) Perennial; culms 

 tufted, erect, 20 to 40 cm tall, with 1 node above the basal cluster of 

 leaves; sheaths glabrous, strongly pilose at the throat; blades flat to 

 rather loosely involute, 1 to 2 mm wide; panicle loose, open, pilose 

 in the axils, at first about half the entire length of the culm, elongating 

 toward maturity, the axis curving or loosely spiral, as much as 40 cm 

 long, the distant branches stiffly spreading, 5 to 15 cm long, fiorifer- 

 ous to base, sometimes bearing below a few secondary branches, the 



« Lamson-Scribnek. F. new ok little known QRASSKS. U.S. Dept. Agr ., Div. Agros. Bull. 8, pt. I: 

 5-11, illus. 1S97. (See p. 10.) 



55974°-35 10 



