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PIl'EE 



NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES OE FESTUCA. 



11 



1 - Festuca octoflora Walt. 



bore 



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Festuca udoflora Walt. Fl. Car. 81. 1788. 

 _ According to Trofessor A . S. Hitchcock, there i.s no specimen to represent this species 

 in^ the part of Walters's herbarium preserved in the British Museum. The brief 

 original description prol^aI)ly refers to the jjlant generallv understood. 



Fedum teoeUaWiM. 8p. PI. 1: 419. 1797. "Habitat' in America 

 have not seen the type. 



^ Feduca Macea Pair. Encyl. Suppl. 2: (V.iS. 1811. Described from specimens grown 

 m the Jardin du Val de Grace, France, the original source unknown. We have 

 not seen the type. 



Festuca parvijiora Ell. Bot. S. C. & Oa. 1 : 170. 1817. We have examined thetvpe of 

 ■ in Elliott's herbarium, and are inclined to con^sider it an hnmature shade form 

 of odojiora. It is wortliy of note, however, tJiat all the specimens which match 

 Elliott's type arc from the Southern States. The type ia in possession of tlie College 

 of Charleston. 



Fe.^tuca tenella ylaaca Nntt. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. 5: 147. 1834. Tvpe in the herba- 

 rium of the Philadelphia Academy, collected b}- Xuttall at Fort Smith, Ark. The 

 plant is scarcely glaucous. 



Feduca gracUeuta BncM. Proc. Acad. Phila. 1862: 97. 1868. Type from "northern 

 Texas." It is exactly the same thing as F. parvifloni EII. The type specimen h in 

 the herbarium of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences. 



Festuca pusillu Buckl. Pruc. Acad. Phila. 1862: <I7. 1803. Tvpc from "northern 

 California," preserved in the herbarium of the Philadelphia Academy. It is per- 

 fectly matched by many recent collections from the same region. The awns are 

 aliout equal in length to the flowering glumes. 



Festuca octoflora nrhtulata Torr.; L, II. Dewey, Contr. Xat. Herb. 2: 547. 18<»4 

 No type indicated, but the description of "awns equaling or somewhat exceeding 

 the florets" calls for a different plant from the California specimen of Bigelow to 

 which Torrey originally applied the name as a nomcn nwhnii. 



niiscijiPTiox. 



Culms slender, erect, sometimes geniculate at base, often tufted, 5 to 40 cm. high 

 glabrous or retrorsely puberulent, mostly 3-jointed; sheaths glabrous or pubescent^ 

 shorter than the internodes; ligule 0,-3 to 1 mm. long, scarions, not decurrent; blades 

 narrowly linear, involute or rarely flat, soft, erect or ascending, 2 to 10 cm. long; 

 panicle narrow, erect, often reduced to a raceme or spike, 3 to lL>cm. long, some- 

 times secund; rays mostly solitary, 2 to 4 oi- sometimes even 8 mm. long, erect,' rarely 

 spreading, 3-angled, usually scabrous; spikeleta oval or oblong, 5 to 9, or rarely 

 13 mm. long, 5 to 13-fluwered; joints of the raclnlla clavate, 0,5 to 0.7 mm. long; 

 glumes subulate-lanceolate, the lower 1-nerved, 3 mm. long, the u[,pcr 3-nerved, 4 nmi.' 

 long; lemma firm, convex, lanceolate, from glabrous to very scabrous, obscurely 5- 

 nerved, 4 to 5 mm. long, attenuate into a scabrous straight awn 1 U> 7 mm, long; 

 palea lanceolate, acute, equaling the lemma, the nerves scabrous; stamen 1. 



Festuca octoflora ranges throughout the United States, extending north^^•ard into 

 British Columbia and Ontario and southward into lower California. We have seen 

 no specimens from Mexico or from Central or South America, though it is reported 

 from Brazil by Doell in Marlins's Flora Brasiliensis as F. tcnellu Willd. 



This species is very variable, as might be expected from its wide range, but for the 

 most part the characters are too inconstant for nomenclatorial recognition. In Utah 

 and California occur some puzzling approaches to F. paciflca, but otherwise there is 

 no danger of confusing it with related species. 



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