1913] Knowlton,— Festuca octoflora in Vermont 187 
but not satisfactorily referable to any of them.” In the succeeding 
twelve seasons since the publication of C. mirabilis, var. tincta much 
material of the plant has accumulated and the writer now has before 
him specimens representing 39 different collections of the plant. These 
form a thoroughly consistent series; differing from C. mirabilis not 
only in the fewer dark-colored spikes with almost appressed perigynia 
barely exceeding the scales but in the low stature, slender culms, nar- 
row leaves and closer sheaths —as different from C. mirabilis as is 
C. straminea from C. mirabilis, var. perlonga. 
In well developed C. mirabilis the greenish spikes are rather numer- 
ous and form a head 2-4.5 cm. long, and the perigynia are much 
longer than the pale scales and with strongly spreading tips, much 
as in C. projecta Mackenzie (C. tribuloides, var. reducta Bailey). In 
C. tincta the brown spikes are few, 3-7, in a head 1.5-3 em. long, and 
the perigynia are ascending and barely exceed the deep brown or 
castaneous scales. In C. mirabilis the culms are rather stout and 
ordinarily very tall, up to 1.5 m. high; the leaves 2.5-6 mm. broad, 
with comparatively loose sheaths. In C. tincta the culms are slender 
and comparatively low, 2.5-9 dm. high, and the leaves are 1-4 mm. 
wide, with rather close sheaths. Geographically, too, C. tincta is of 
quite different range from C. mirabilis. While the latter is generally 
distributed from central Maine to Manitoba and south to North 
Carolina, Missouri, and Kansas, C. tincta is more boreal, occurring 
from Newfoundland to northern and western New England. 
In its dark scales nearly equaling the perigynia and in its approxi- 
mate spikes C. tincta is nearly related to C. Macloviana D'Urv. of 
northern Europe, Greenland and Labrador and, as stated in the origi- 
nal publication, to the various plants of the Northwest which consti- 
tute the polymorphous C. festiva Dewey. From all these it is quickly 
separated by the looser inflorescence in which the spikes though 
approximate are not crowded. It is also suggestive of the very local 
C. oronensis Fernald, but differs in its broad ovate winged perigynia 
about 2 mm. broad.— M. L. FERNALD, Gray Herbarium. 
FESTUCA OCTOFLORA IN VERMONT.— This delicate grass was listed 
as F. tenella Willd. in Wm. Oakes's Catalogue of Vermont Plants, in 
Thompson’s History of Vermont (1852). The station given was 
Bellows Falls, the collector, Carey. Messrs. Brainerd, Jones and 
