58 THE AGRICULTURAL GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Stipa. (Feather grass, Beard grass.) 



A genus mostly of coarse, rigid grasses, chieflj^ Western, in structure 

 and habit resembling the preceding genus. It differs in having the 

 spikelets usually longer and the flowering glume having a siugle undi- 

 vided awn or beard. 



Stipa viridula. (Bunch grass.) 



A perennial grass, culms 2 to 4 feet high, leafy ; the radical leaves 12 to 

 18 inches long, those of the stem 4 to 10 inches long, one to two lines 

 wide, involute, and bristle-like at the point -, sheaths lorg, smooth, the 

 uppermost inclosing the base of the panicle ; panicle very variable in 

 size, from 6 inches to a foot or more, narrow and loose, variable in thick- 

 ness, tlie branches mostly in twos or threes, erect and appressed, much 

 subdivided; spikelets, one-flowered on short pedicels ; outer glumes 

 four to six lines long, bristle-pointed, nearly equal, lanceolate, three to 

 five nerved, thin ; flowering glume three to four lines long, cylindrical, 

 covered with short, scattered hairs, which are longer at the minutely 

 two-toothed apex, which is terminated by a slender awn 1 to 1.^ inches 

 long, once or twice bent, twisted and sparsely pubescent below, scabrous 

 above. The palet is narrow and shorter than its glume, by which the 

 floral organs and it are involved. Widely diftused over the Kocky 

 Mountain region, extending to California, Oregon, and- British Amer- 

 ica, furnishing a considerable part of the wild forage of the region. 

 (Plate 38.) 



Stipa setigera. (Bear-grass, Bunch grass.) 



A i)erenuial grass, growing in bunches on dry hills and plains from 

 Oregon to Southern California and eastward to Arizona and Texas. 

 The culms are 2 to 3 feet high, erect, somewhat pubescent at the joints, 

 with about three leaves. The sheaths are long and somewhat scabrous, 

 the ux^per one loose and inclosing the base of the panicle; the blade flat, 

 two or three lines wide, 4 to 6 inches long, roughish and long.pointed ; 

 the upper one nearly as long as the panicle, which is about 6 inches 

 lon^, loose, the rays mostly in pairs, rather distant, slender, bearing 

 near the extremity the few spikelets on short pedicels. Spikelets one- 

 flowered, the outer glumes one-half to two-thirds of an inch lon^, the 

 upper one rather shorter, narrow, acute, purplish and three-nerved. 

 The flowering glume is nearlj- cyl^'udrical, four to five lines long, spar- 

 ingly hairy above, with a short, stiff' point at the base called a callus, 

 and a hardened ring at the apex, to which is attached the shmder, twisted 

 awn, 2 to 3 inches long, the lower part of which is softly pubescent. 

 Professor Brewer says this is the most common and most valuable 

 "bunch grass" of the hills of California. (Plate 3J.) 



Stipa exinens. (Feather grass. Beard grass.) 



A very common species in California on dry hills, growing in rather 

 small tufts with numerous short and narrow root-leaves. It is a per- 



