8 CONTRliUTTIONS FROM THE N'ATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



DESCRIPTIVE TERMINOLOGY. 



Wg have taken the liberty to introduce the word lemma^ to apply to 

 the "^ ■ lower palet" or '^ outer pulet^' or '^flowering glume" of authors, 

 restricting the word '^ glume" to the ''empty glumes." This is done 

 purely for a practical reason, namelj^, to avoid the constant use of 

 phrases for the members of the grass spikelet most used in technical 

 descriptions. 



The onl}^ other attempt to apply a single-word term to the ^'flowering 



glume" we have noticed is the word '^floriglume," proposed by Prof. 



George Macloskie in volume 8 of the Report of the Princeton Univer- 



sity Expedition to Patagonia. This term seems to us objectionable, 



because it is likely to lead to confusion with the word ^' glume," as 



applied to both empty glumes. The so-called third empty glume of 



some grasses is really a sterile lennna. 



The use of a single distinctive name for each part of the grass spike- 

 let seems much preferable to the emplo^^ment of such general terms 



as bracts, bractlets, and scales. 



SYNOPSIS OF UNITED STATES AND CANADIAN SPECIES. 



FESTTTCA L. 



FeMvcaJ., Sp. PL 1: 78. 1753. 



SpikelctH 2 to niany-flowcred, variously paniculate orgometimes racemo&^e; ruchina 

 articulate at the joints and above the gliuiies; florets all perfei't, or the uppermost 

 staminate; ghimes 2, persiating, cariiiate, uueiiual or subequal, the lowest 1-nerved 

 (rarely li-uerved), the upper larger and 3-nerved (rarely 5-nerved); Itjinma lanceo- 

 late, usually narrow, commonly aristate, always 5-nervedj convex or subearinate, 

 firm in texture at least near the Ijane, the apex and margins sometimes wc^ariouf?, the 

 callofie base smooth or nearly so; palea bicarinate, oblong or lanceolate, obtuse, acute, 

 acuminate, or bidentate atapex, usually about equaling the lemma; lodicules2, about 

 as long as the ovary, sometimoH entire, usually bifid; stamens 3 in the perennial spe- 

 cies, in the annuals often reduced to 1; ovary obovate, smooth or hispidulous atapex; 

 styles very short, distinctly apical; stigmay plumose, the branches toothed; caryop- 

 eis linear or oblong, glabrous, (convex dorsally, aulcate or rarely plane veutrally, often 

 adhering to the palea; hilum linear. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



Subgenus Vulpia. Annuals; stamens usually 1^ sometimes 3^ rarely becoming 

 extruded; stigma plumose, the })ranches toothed, bilateral. 



Spikelets densely 5 to 13-flowered; lemma withoutscarioua margin. 1. ortqffora. 



Spikelets loosely 1 to 5, rarely 6-flowered; lemma with narrow 

 scarious margin. 



Branches of the short panicle normally divergent, a pul villus 

 at the base of at least one of them. 

 Florets mostly 8 to 5 in each spikelet, only the principal 



panicle branches divergent. 



ftXi/ijLia (Xsjit/iat-), husk, scale. 



