The orthodox description of the grass family contains the phrase "stems usually hollow" which has been generally accepted as meaning that all mature grasses other than the genera of the Andropogoneae and Nazieae have hollow stems. Early in 1927, when certain grasses not members of either of these tribes were examined, they were found to have solid stems. Continued investigation showed that a very high percentage of the mature grasses native to the semiarid Jornada plain have solid internodes. Bews states that the stems of grasses are usually hollow, but a number of "types" have solid stems, including the Andropogoneae and many of the Paniceae. Vavilov (6) also refers to a solid-stemmed variety of Agropyrum crislatum Beauv., which he reports as being widely distributed over European and Asiatic Russia.