234 Pieper: Four New SPECIES OF 
internodes of the rachis linear-clavate, 4-6 mm. long, puberulent 
near the apex, minutely scabrous on the margin above. 
Steptoe, Whitman County, Washington, collected by G. R. 
Vasey, July 5, 1901. 
Sitanion basalticola 
Densely tufted, the whole plant smooth and glaucous: culms 
10-20 cm. high, barely exceeding the leaves of the numerous in- 
novations: sheaths exceeding the internodes; ligule obsolete ; 
blades involute, erect or recurved, 3-10 cm. long, 2 mm. wide, 
smooth beneath, minutely scabrous on the nerves above: spikes 
3-5 cm. long, without the awns, erect, barely exserted from the 
upper sheaths: spikelets two at each joint, the lower with one 
sterile floret, the upper with three florets, two of them usually fer- 
tile: empty glumes or divisions mostly six or eight, subulate, 
entire, scabrous, about 6 mm. long, each tipped with a spreading 
awn, 2—3.5 cm. long: flowering glume 8-10 mm. long, glabrous 
and glaucous, excepting the three nerves at apex, these scabrous, 
the lateral ones prolonged into bristles 1 mm. long, the middle 
one into a stout scabrous divergent awn, 3—-3.5 cm. long: palea 
as long as the flowering glume, minutely scabrous on the margin 
above the middle, emarginate at apex : internodes of the rachis 
flattened, linear or linear-spatulate, scabrous on the margins above. 
In basaltic soil, Coulee City, Washington, collected by the 
writer, June I, 1902, no 3924. 
Sitanion rubescens 
Culms tufted, erect, somewhat geniculate at the lower nodes, 
glabrous, about 60 cm. high; nodes brown: sheaths mostly 
shorter than the internodes, rather closely fitting, glabrous ; ligules 
obsolete or nearly so; blades flat, green, linear, attenuate to the 
acute apex, 5—10 cm. long, 3-5 mm. broad, glabrous above, scab- 
rous on the nerves beneath, where the latter are more prominent 
than above: spikes long-exserted, straight or flexuous, erect, 8— 
13 cm. long: spikelets mostly two, rarely three, at each joint, the 
lower or lateral ones 1—2-flowered, mostly sterile, the upper or 
middle ones 2—3-flowered, the lower one or two florets fertile : 
empty glumes lanceolate, frequently oblique, 2~3-nerved, scabrous 
on the nerves, 6—7 mm. long, each bearing a stout divergent scab- 
rous awn, I-2 cm. long, or the glumes very rarely bifid and bear- 
ing in addition a short lateral awn: flowering glumes lanceolate, 
10-12 mm. long, smooth and shining below, 3-5-nerved and scab- 
rous above, each bearing a stout straight or flexuous scabrid pur- 
plish awn, 1.5~—5 cm. long: palea as long as the flowering glume, 
