64 Rhodora [APRIL 
Lange var. latiglume, the salient feature of which is wider glumes 
covered with a fine pubescence. In other members of our group 
the glumes are merely minutely ciliate on the margins. In most of the 
group it is difficult to measure the glumes, because of their shape, for 
they are folded strongly so as to have a prominent keel. In 4. viola- 
ceum var. latiglume the keel is much flattened or almost wanting; 
that is, the glumes are, as it were, unfolded, thus giving the appear- 
ance of width. This fact is certainly more striking than any actu- 
ally greater breadth, even if that exists. The variety was described 
from the West, but all of the Arctic material in the Gray Herbarium, 
except one violet-spiked specimen of A. violaceum, answers to the 
description of it. This suggests the bare possibility that A. violaceum 
(Hornem.) Lange var. virescens Lange may belong here. 
The intimate relationship between A. violaceum (Hornem.) Lange 
and A. caninum (L.) Beauv., referred to above, is brought out by 
Beal,! who says, “ Perhaps this A. violaceum] is a northern or alpine 
form of A. caninum R. & S., from which it differs in having a culm 
30-50 cm. high, leaves 3-4 in number,’ blades proportionately shorter, 
spikes 3-8-12 cm. long, narrow, strict, more or less tinged with violet. 
Spikelets 3-5 flowered; floral glume wider than in A. caninum, not 
so firm, nerves more prominent; awn short or none; palea shorter 
than the floral glume, pectinate-ciliate." Even these differences do 
not all hold. A violet tinge is occasionally found in’ A. caninum, 
while entire absence of violet color is common in A. violaceum; 
the palea- and glume-characters are not good. Triticum violaceum 
Hornem.? is the first published name, but the first varietal appella- 
tion, which we believe expresses the rank best suited to this plant, is 
Triticum biflorum Brign. 8 Hornemanni Koch.* 
Plants with greener, more stocky spikes have been distinguished as 
Agropyrum violaceum (Hornem.) Lange f. virescens Lange? ‘This 
tendency is the common one in the White Mountains, while the other 
is known from the Arctic Region and the West. However, the White 
Mountain development is not unknown in the West, where one also 
finds the slender-spiked, narrow-leaved plant of Greenland, probably 
1 Grasses N. A. ii, 639 (1896). 
2 This character we find to be inconstant. 
3 Flora Dan. xii, t. 2044 (1834). 
4 Syn, Flor. Germ. Helv. ed. II, ii, 953 (1844). “Koch bases his variety directly upon 
Triticum violaceum Hornem. 
5 Consp. Flor. Groenl. 155 (1880). 
