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FIVKR NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF FESTUCA. 



17 



Kuiith himself first referred this plant to F. viynros L. (H. B. K. Nov. Gen. et Sp.l: 

 155. )j remarking; *'Non video quo charactere distinguenda sit a Festuco myuro 

 Linn,?" Neverthetes, he later nances the plant i^^. rmiralh^ without pointing out 

 wherein it differed, Kunth's figure in 11. B. K. shows no character whatever by 

 which his plant can be differentiated from F. myuros. The interesting question at once 

 arises as to whether Kunth^s plant is native or not. His type came from garden 

 w^alls in Quito j Ecuador, and might w^ell have been introduced there prior to 1815. 

 The question is somewhat complicated by Jameson's no. 232, also collected at Quito 

 in 1856, in sandy places and on garden walls. The sheet of this number in the Gray 

 Herbarium is a mixture of myuros and megnlxtra. It is liardly possible thatKunth's 

 type can be the latter species, as he would surely have noticed the bristly cilia, espe- 

 cially as he was trying to differentiate his plant from F. myuros. As both the species 

 grow at Quito, it will require an examination of Kunth^s type to settle definitely 

 what his F, muralis is, but it is altogether probable that it is true 7^. myuros^ and not 

 F. megahira. It may further be added that the Jameson specimen and one collected 

 on Mount Iztaccihuatl, Mexico, by Charles Deam (no. 22), are the only American 

 specimens of F, myuros which we would hesitate to consider introduced. 



10. Festuca megralura Nutt. 



Festuea megalura Nutt. Journ. Acad. Phila. n. s. 1: 188. 1847. Type from Santa 

 Barbara, CaL, but we have been unable to locate it in any American herbarium, nor 

 is it in the British Museum. Nuttallian specimens of this species, with a different 

 unpublished name, are in the l^hiladelphia Academy and in the British Museum. 

 Nuttairs description is so good, however, that there can be no doubt regarding the 



plant. 



Vulpia myuros Mrsuia Hack. Cat. Gram. Port. 24. 1880. Type from Portugal. 

 " Festuca myuros hirsuki Asch. & Graebn. Syn. Mitteleur. Fl. 2: 558. 1901. 



DESCIUPTION. 



Very similarin all respects to the preceding species; panicles usually longer; lemma 



sparsely ciliate on its upper half. (Plate V.) 



This plant is abundant on the Pacific slope from British Columbia and Idaho to 

 Mexico and Lower California. It also recurs in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. 

 The evidence points very strongly to its being native and not introduced. In 

 Europe it has been found only iu Portugal, and that in comparatively recent years, 

 so that it is more likely an introduction there than viite versa. It was collected in 

 British Columbia by Lyali in 1859, in Washington by Doctor Cooper in 1853 and 

 by Tolmic much earlii^r, in Calif(jrnia by Gambell before 1847, iu Nevada by Ander- 

 son in 1865^ in Ecuador by Jameson in 1856, in Peru by the Wilkes expedition in 

 1839, and in Chile by Gay about 1850. This widespread range along the Pacific 

 slope of both North and South Ameri<'a at such early dates, taken in contrast with 

 its very local distribution in Europe, points to its being a West American native. 

 Nevertheless, in eastern Washington and Idaho it is a plant of very recent introduc- 

 tion, and iu its rapitl spread behaves like many weedy plants of undoubted European 

 origin. 



Most of the South American specimens referred to Festuca muralis Kunth belong 

 to F. megalura^ and authentic material from Gay shows that such w^as the case with 

 the specimens on which the F, mvrahs of the Flora Chilensis was based. 



The character by which megalura is distinguished from myuros \^ very slight, but 

 surprisingly constant. It has been mistaken by some recent California collectors for 

 the European Festuca ciliata Danth. {F. myuros eiliata Cosson). 



