NOTES ON SOME PACIFIC COAST GRASSES. 



By George Vaskt. 



The grasses of California as described by Dr. Thurber in tlie Botany 

 of California, second volume, are mostly models of accurate description. 

 In some cases, however, and especially in the genera Poa and Festuca^ 

 Dr. Thurber in his conservative desire to make as few new species as 

 possible made mistakes in trying to fit many really good new species 

 to old names. I have been well satisfied of this for several years, but 

 having recently had an opportunity of studying some of these grasses 

 in the herbarium at Kew and in that of the British Museum, I am com- 

 pelled to make several important changes. It appears to me that Dr. 

 Thurber gave too broad definition to the genus Atropis [Puccinellia 

 Pari.). The first and second species of his list probably belong in 

 that genus, but A. California^ tenuifolia, paucijlora, and probably sea- 

 brella are, in my opinion, forms of Poa. 



Poa abbreviata R. Br. Chloris Melv. 287 (1823), is a truly arctic grass, as noted 

 hereafter, on page 270 under Poa confinis. 



Poa stenantha Trin. Mem. Acad. St. Pet. ser. 6. i. 376 (1831) is an Alaskan species 

 which has not, so far as I can find, been collected in California or in Washing- 

 ton, and the plant described by Dr. Thurber under that name is a very different 

 species. It is probably Festuea nervosa Hook., which, however, is not a Festuca, 

 but a Poa. I saw Hooker's type in the Eoyal Herbarium at Kew, and am satis- 

 fied that it should be Poa nervosa (Hook.) Vasey. See description on page 274. 



Poa glumaris Trin. Mem. Acad. St. Pet. ser. 6. i. 379 (1831). It is evident that 

 Dr. Thurber, in Bot. Cal. ii. 313, has confused this grass with Poa Mngii Wats. 

 Bot. King Surv., which is Festuca confinis Vasey, Bull. Torr. Club, xi. 126, and 

 which would have been named Festuca Mngii if its identity had been known 

 at the time of its second publication. The two grasses are entirely distinct. 

 Festuca confinis occurs throughout the Rocky Mountains, where Poa glumaris has 

 not been found. F. glumaris, however, appears to be confined to the coast, and 

 has not been collected so far south as Washington on the west side, but it occur* 

 about Hudson Bay, in Labrador, in the islands of the St. Lawrence, and in 

 Newfoundland.' 



EragroBtis alba Presl, Rel. Haenk. i. 279 (1828). None of the Californian specimens 

 which I have seen under this name answer the description of Presl, but appear 

 to be forms of the very variable E. pursJiii. 



Festuca L, There arc several good species of this genus in California which must 

 have new names. The F. gracillima of Hooker, to which Dr. Thurber referred 



2C5 



