THE GRASSES OF ALASKA. 



By F. Lamson-Scribner and Elmer D. Merrill, 



INTRODUCTION. 



In the present paper all the species of grasses which have been 

 credited to Alaska are noted, but it has been impossible to identify 

 positively some of those described by the older authors. In some of 

 the published lists of Alaskan grasses there are species credited to 

 the territory which certainly do not occur in that region. This has 

 resulted from erroneous determinations or misconceptions of the 

 species. In some cases it has been possible properly to refer these, as 

 the material on which several of the lists were based is in the National 

 Herbarium; in others, however, we have been unable even to conject- 

 ure what an author had at hand. In cases where the species are well 

 authenticated they have been admitted here even though we have 

 seen no Alaskan material representing them. 



In 1830 Presl published the first volume of his " Reliquiae Haenkea- 

 nae," which contains the descriptions of many new species from 

 Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island. This is practically the beginning 

 of the systematic botany of the Pacific Northwest. In 1832 Bongard 

 published his "Observations sur la Vegetation de Tile de Sitcha." 

 Earlier in the same series Trinius described b many species of grasses 

 based on Alaskan material, although he had published a few Alaskan 

 species in previous works. The next work of importance on the 

 Alaskan flora, and the last one during the Russian occupancy, was 

 Ledebour's "Flora Rossica," which contains many references to, and 

 descriptions of, new species from Russian North America, the grasses 

 of this work being by Grisebach, and contained in volume 4. c 

 With one or two exceptions, practically all the publications of the 

 Alaskan grasses since that of Grisebach are by American botanists 

 and consist of mere lists and miscellaneous descriptions of new species. 



Comparatively little is known regarding the distribution of many 

 of the species in Alaska, for some are represented in collections by 

 only one or two specimens; then, too, nearly all our material is from 

 the coast region, very few botanists having ventured into the vast and 



u See bibliography, p. 91. 



&Mem. Acad. St. Petersl). VI. Math. Phys. Nat. 1: 54-93, 353-416. 1830. 



c Pages 324-4M. 1853. 



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