^ 



5 



of F, simplex scarcely enough to be called a variety, and Dr. 

 Britton agrees with me in this opinion. It is unusually large 

 throughout, with long (about 2 cm.) spikelets. ''Valley of the 

 lower Rio Grande*' (Buckley). 



Fun^ENA SQUARROSA. 



Rhizomes,* leaves and glumes as described under F. simplex, 

 Achenium nearly sessile. Bristles slender, tapering to the 

 apex, usually exceeding the achenium, retrorsely barbed. Scale- 

 stalk reaching the middle of the achenium. Scale narrowly to 

 broadly oblong, acuminate at both ends, or sometimes abrupt at 

 the base, frequently only one-nerved, tapering into a slender 

 tapering awn usually exceeding the scale and smooth or back- 

 wardly barbed. 



Michaux, Fl. Bor.-Amer. i. p. 37(1803). F. sqitarrosa, van 

 pttmila, Torrey, Compend. Fl. North. & Mid. States, p. 46 (1826); 

 Ann, Lye. Nat Hist N. Y. iii. p. 291 (1836) t; Fl. N. Y. ii. p. 

 345 (1843); Gray Man, Bot (5th Ed.) p. 556, PL IF (1867). 



Plant usually small, 5-15 cm. in height, but sometimes reach- 

 ing 60 cm., mostly smooth except the lower sheaths. Inflor- 

 escence sometimes reduced to a single spikelet The bristles are 

 sometimes twice as long as the stipe and achenium together, and 

 the awn in such cases may equal the scale and its stalk. The 

 barbing of the awn is more conspicuous in these two cases, and 

 wanting in the other extreme. I have seen one depauperate 

 specimen in which both bristles and awns were almost entirely 

 wanting, but the plant undoubtedly belonged here. 



* After this paper was completed the writer, while in the field one day, saw for 

 the first time (never having lived in a region in which /'//mv;*? grew) a living specimen 

 oi F, squarrosa^ var. hispida. While collecting some of the plants he was astonished 

 to find that the rootstocks were plentifully supplied with ovoid tubers about 5 mm. in 

 diameter. It has been learned since that Mr. Theodore Holm of Washington had 

 observed the same organs, and has found the character a constant one. He is pre- 

 paring a paper on the subject. Not one of the large number of herbarium speci- 

 mens examined during the work of revision bore a tuber, and I cannot now say 

 whether they are found in any of the other forms. The specimens of the typical form, 

 however, look as if they had never borne tubers. 



f The following are given by Torrey in this article as synonyms. I have been 

 unable to examine the descriptions myself. F. sqiiarrosa var, pumila^ Torrey, Fl. 

 North. & Mid. States i. p. OS (1824); F. pumila, Sprengel, Syst. Veg. i. p. 237 

 (1S25) ; Schultes, Syst. Veg. Mant. iii. p. 546 (1827). F, Torreyana^ Beck, Bot. 

 North, and Mid. States p. 429 (1S33). 



