BOTANY ■ 



GAR D F N . 



BULLETIN 



OF THE 



TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB 



Vol. XVII.l New York, September 6, 1890. [No. 9. 



New or Little Known Grasses— 



■ 



By F. Lamso.\-Sckii:nkr. 



(Plates CV-CVIII). 



Some months ago T received from tlie Botanist of the United 

 States Department of Agricnlture specimens of a dicucious grass — 

 both the male and female plants — collected on the sandy coasts 

 of Lower California, by Dr. E. Palmer. The characters presented 

 by these specimens were in some respects remarkable and wholly 

 unlike any species known to me. The characters of the female 

 plants at once suggested those of Jo^roea stramiuca, Fourn. (Bull. 

 Soc. Roy. Bot. de Belgique, xv. p. 475) and a very careful further 

 study of the material in hand has led me to the conclusion that this 

 grass is none other than that rare species, which was unknown to 

 Bentham and has never been seen by Prof Hackel. While differ- 

 ing in some apparently essential points from the published descrip- 

 tions of Joiivea stramiuca, there is such an agreement in the 



characters, especially in those which are most remarkable^ that 

 until wc can make a comparison with the type, T must consider 

 our plant certainly Joiivea, and in all probability J. straniinca^ 

 which is diagnosed by Fournier (in PL Mex. ii. p. 68) as follows: 

 JOUVEA. Gramen littorcum, junciforme. Spica terminalis, 

 cylindrica acuta. Spiculae uniflorae, dioic:e, in rhachide immerse et 

 illi in parte inferiore adnata::. Mascuke non not<x\ Feminearum 

 glumae^/^(^, exterior cartilaginea, straminea, interna hyalina, apice 

 tantum a rhachide distincta. Palc(B dnce^ augustai viinores ; sty- 

 lus longus, stigmatibus 2, flore exeuntibus ; sqnaviuHs triangularis 

 hns. 



* 



For No. I, see Bulletin, xv. 8-10. 



f 



