BOTANICAI HAPnr^j 



GIVEN 6r i\. l. BRJTTON. 



Circular No. 10.— (Agros. 42.) 



Issued April 1.5, 1H99. 



United States Department of Agriculture, 



DIVISION OF AGROSTOLOGY. 

 [Grass and Forage Plant Investigation.] 



rOA FENDLERIANA AND ITS ALLIES. 



Poa feudler^icma and its allies form an interesting and difficult 

 group of species and are found chiefly in the southwestern part of 

 the United States. The species are 

 much confused in herbaria and have 

 been very differently understood by 

 the various botanists who have studied 

 them. The first name published for 

 any of the species was Eraqrostis 

 fendleriana Steudel, based on Fend- 

 ler's No. 932 from New Mexico. 

 Munro confused this as well as allied 

 species with Hartweg's No. 2035, to 

 which he gave the manuscript name 

 Sclerochloa californica and much 

 of the difficulty that later botanists 

 have experienced has arisen from the 

 fact that in his determinations of ma- 

 terial he gave this name to such a 

 great variety of plants, many of them 

 differing widely in botanical charac- 

 ters. Thurber followed Munro in 

 making the Atropis californica of 

 Watson's Botany of California in- 

 clude very diverse forms. The Poa 

 californica of Coulter's Manual of 

 Rocky Mountain Botany and of 

 which Munro is cited as the authority, 

 is, according to both synonymy and 

 range, even more puzzling than Thur- 

 hev^'& Atropis californica. As stated 

 in a recent publication of this Division 

 (Circ. 9, Div. Agros., p. 3) Hartweg's No. 2035, to which Munro first 

 gave his manuscript name Sclerochloa californica, is a verj'^ different 



Fio. 1.— Poa fendleriana. 



