224 



POACEAE 



22. Festuca occidentalis Hook. 

 Western Fescue. Fig. 525. 



Festuca occidentalis Hook. Fl. Bor. Am. 2: 249. 1840. 

 Festuca ozina pol\'ph\lla Vasey; Beal, Grasses N. Am. 2: 

 597. 1896. 



Culms densely tufted, slender, erect, shining, 

 40-80 cm. tall ; sheaths smooth ; blades numerous, 

 mostly basal, filiform-involute, bright green, soft, 

 3-20 cm. long; panicle loose, subsecund. 7-20 cm. 

 long, often drooping above, the rays solitary or 

 the lowest in pairs; spikelets loosely 3-5-flo\vered, 

 6-10 mm. long, mostly on slender pedicels, pale 

 green ; lemmas rather thin, 5-6 mm. long, scalieru- 

 lous toward the apex, attenuate into a slender awn 

 about as long. 



Dry, rocky wooded slopes and banks, in the Transition 

 Zone; British Columbia to central California, east to 

 Wyoming and northern ^Michigan. June-Ang. Tyiie lo- 

 cality: mouth of the Columbia River. 



23. Festuca idahoensis Elmer. 

 Bltie Btinch-grass. Fig. 526. 



Festuca ovina ingrata Hack.; Beal, Grasses N. Am. 2: 598. 



1896; 



Festuca ovina coluiubiaua Beal, Grasses N. Am. 2: 599. 



1896. 

 Festuca orina orcgona Hack.; Beal, Grasses N. Am. 2: 



599. 1896. 

 Festuca idahoensis Elmer, Bot. Gaz. 36: 53. 1903. 

 Festuca ingrata Rydb. Bull. Torrey Club 32: 608. 1905. 



Culms densely tufted, smooth or somewhat sca- 

 brous above, 30-100 cm. tall ; blades numerous, 

 mostly basal, rather stiff and firm, more or less 

 fiexuous, scabrous, 15-30 cm. long, sometimes 

 shorter ; panicle narrow, 10-20 cm. long, the 

 branches appressed or ascending, very scabrous ; 

 spikelets about as in F. rubra, the lemmas firmer, 

 the awn 2-4 mm. long. 



Open woods and rocky slopes, in the Arid Transition 

 Zone; British Columbia to central California, east to Al- 

 berta and Colorado. May-July. Type locality: Shoshone 

 County, Idaho. 



24. Festuca howellii Hack. 

 Howell's Fescue. Fig. 527. 



Festuca Jiou'ellii Hack.; Beal, Grasses N. Am. 2: 591. 1896. 



Culms densely tufted, erect, 60-120 cm. tall ; sheaths 

 smooth ; ligule very short ; blades loosely involute, 

 shining, 8-15 cm. long, about 4 mm. wide ; panicle 

 open, 8-10 cm. long, the lower branches in pairs ; 

 spikelets 4 or 5-flowered, 8-12 nun. long; glumes 

 lanceolate, glabrous or nearly so, the first 2-3 mm., 

 the second 4 mm. long ; lemma membranaceous, linear- 

 lanceolate, strongly 5-nerved, appressed-hispidulous, 

 6 mm. long, the awn about 2 mm. long. 



The tyjje collection is from Deer Creek, Josephine County, 

 Oregon. Certain California sjjecimens may belong to this 

 species (Sherwood Valley, Dary, Hitchcock ; Mount Hood, So- 

 noma County, Heller). 



