LAMSON-SCKIBNER AND MERRILL GRASSES OF ALASKA. 71 



slender, glabrous branches naked below, bearing a few spikelets above the middle, 

 the lower ones often 6 cm. long, spreading or ascending; spikelets 5 to 6 mm. long, 2 

 or 3-flowered, the glabrous pedicels exceeding the spikelets; glumes lanceolate, 

 acuminate, glabrous, the first 2.5 mm. long, the second 3 mm. long, faintly 3-nerved; 

 lemmas narrowly lanceolate, acuminate, about 3.5 mm. long, obscurely 5-nerved, 

 somewhat villous on the keel and marginal nerves below, webbed at the base, the 

 hairs as long as the lemma or longer, otherwise glabrous; palea nearly equaling the 

 lemma, slightly scabrous on the keels. 



Sitka and southward to Washington and (?) Colorado. 



Specimen examined: Sitka, Mertens (from Herb. Acad. St. Petersb.). 



We have seen no Alaskan material representing this species other than the fragment 

 in the U. S. National Herbarium from the type collection, and also a similar specimen 

 in the Bernhardi Herbarium in the collections of the Missouri Botanical Garden. 

 Both these specimens are of the form a, which we consider to represent the species, 

 as the form /? from Kamtchatka is evidently a different species, approaching Poa 

 arctica R. Br. The present species is distinguished by its slender habit, thin, pale 

 green leaves, lax few-flowered panicles, and narrow, acuminate lemma; in many 

 respects it resembles Poa reflexa Vasey & Scribn. 



12a. Poa leptocoma elatior subsp. nov. 



A tall form 80 to 90 cm. high, with ample spreading panicles about 20 cm. long, 

 the scabrous branches 7 to 10 cm. long, bearing few spikelets, these somewhat larger 

 than in the species; leaf blades 10 to 15 cm. long, 5 mm. wide; spikelets 3-flowered, 

 6 mm. long, the lemmas distinctly nerved, 4.5 mm. long. Perhaps this may prove 

 to be a good species. 



Type U. S. National Herbarium no. 370(302, collected July 20, 1899, Cape Fox, 

 Trelease & Saunders (no. 2982). 



Southeastern Alaska. 



Specimens examined: Cape Fox, Trelease & Saunders 2982; Hot Springs, Howell 

 1719. 



13. Poa stenantha Trim Mem. Acad. St. Petersb. VI. Math. Phys. Nat. 1: 370. J830. 



Poaflavirans Ledeb. Fl. Koss. 4: 373. 1853. 



A slender, erect, glabrous perennial 30 to 70 cm. high, with thin, narrow, ascending 

 leaves and elongated, narrow, pale or usually purplish, somewhat nodding, panicles 

 15 cm. long or less, the scabrous branches ascending, naked below, the lower ones 

 often 8 cm. long; leaf blades I to 3 mm. wide, mostly glabrous; ligule 3 to 4 mm. long; 

 lemmas 4 to 6 mm. long, lanceolate, acute, villous on the keel and marginal nerves 

 below, not webbed at the base, slightly scabrous above and sometimes slightly pubes- 

 cent between the nerves below. 



The Aleutian Islands and Alaska Peninsula to southeastern Alaska; also in north- 

 eastern Asia. 



A variable species, evidently common in Alaska, in general recognized by its elon- 

 gated, contracted, somewhat nodding panicles and the absence of cobwebby hairs 

 at the base of the lemmas. We have not been able satisfactorily to separate Poa 

 flavicans from /'. stenantha, even by comparison of typical material of each from the 

 herbarium of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, and have accordingly reduced 

 the former to a synonym of the latter. Piper's no. 4739 is exactly Poa flavicans 

 Griseb. in Ledeb. Fl. Ross. 



13a. Poa stenantha vivipara Trin. Mem. Acad. St. Petersb. VI. Math, Phys. Nat. 

 1:370. 1830. 



A form with the habit and vegetative characters of the species, but with many of 

 the lemmas developed into leaflets. 



Norton Sound to the Aleutian Islands and southeastern Alaska. 



