62 THE AGRICULTURAL GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Utah, ]Srevada, New Mexico, and Texas. It grows to the heigh t of 2 or 3 

 feet, stiffly erect, and generally unbranched. The culm is hard, some- 

 what compressed, and very leafy. The panicle is narrow, 2 to 4 inches 

 long, composed of numerous close clusters of flowers, becomin.c^ looser 

 below, forming an interrupted glomerate spike. The spikelets are 

 closely sessile in the clusters. The outer glumes are linear-lanceolate, 

 gradually tapering into an awn or bristle of equal length. The flower- 

 ing glume is one-third to one half shorter than the outer glumes and 

 very acute. The root-stock is hard and knotty and furnished with nu- 

 merous short, firm shoots or stolons. In the Eastern States it is util- 

 ized as one of the native products of wet meadows in the making of 

 what is called wild hay. Specimens have been sent from Colorado and 

 Kansas and recommended as an excellent grass for hay. (Plate 46.) 



MuHLENBERGiA COMATA. (Wooly-^ Ceded Muhlenbergia.) 



This species is closely related to the preceding. It grows throughout 

 the Rocky Monntain region in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Ne- 

 vada, and California, usually on the sandy or alki vial banks of streams. 

 It grows in tufts from firm, creeping root-stocks. There is reason to 

 think it may be a valuable grass for arid regions. The culms are erect, 

 simple, 2 to 3 feet high, leafy below, the leaves 3 to 6 inches long and 

 roughish, the upper one at first inclosing the base of the x)auicle, the joint 

 slightly pubescent. The i:)anicle is 2 to 4 inches long, narrow, and close, 

 sometimes interrupted below, generally of a purplish lead color and of 

 soft texture. The spikelets are nearly sessile, the outer glumes very 

 narrow, acute, nearly equal, one-nerved, one and one- half to two lines 

 long. The flowering glume is rather shorter, and surrounded at the 

 base by a copious tnft of long, silky hairs. It is also terminated by a 

 slender awp three or four times as long as the flower. The palet is 

 slightly shorter than its glume and acute. (Plate 47.) 



Muhlenbergia gracilis. (Graceful Muhlenbergia.) 



A perennial grass growing in tufts or loose patches from a creeping 

 root-stock, much branched at the base. The culms are erect, much 

 branched, slender, and wiry, 1 to 1^ feet high; the leaves mostly radi- 

 cal, involute, and bristle-like, 2 to 6 inches long, scabrous on the edges. 

 The' panicle is erect or somewhat nodding, 3 to 6 inches long, narrow, 

 very loose, the branches erect, rather distant, and mostly single. The 

 spikelets are on short pedicels ; the outer glumes unequal, the lower 

 one ending abruptly in a slender point, the upper one three-nerved and 

 three-toothed, the teeth usually prolonged into short awns; the flower- 

 ing glume is somewhat cylindrical, taper-pointed, and with a straight 

 awn about half an inch long ; palet as long as its glume without the 

 awn. 



This species, of which there are several varieties, inhabits the arid 

 regions of Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. It is too small to be 

 of much economic importance. (Plate 48.) 



