10 



5. N0TE8 ON MELICA AND STIPA. 



Note.— The following notes were made by Prof. C. V. Piper while studying the 

 types of certain Western grasses in the Gray Herbarium, Cambridge, Massachu- 

 setts, and later at the herbarium of the Division of Agrostology.— F. L.-S. 



MELICA BELLA Piper, nom. nov. (M. bulbosa Geyer in Hook. Journ. Bot. 

 and Kew Gard. Misc. 8 : 19. 1856, nomen nudum ; M. bulbosa Geyer in Gray, 

 Proc. Am. Acad. 8:409. 1872, nomen nudum; M. bulbosa Geyer in U. S. 

 Dept. Agr., Div. Bot., Bui. 13 : 63, jjZ. 63, 1893, not Melica bidbosa Geyer in 

 Thiirber in S. Wats. Bot. Cal. 2 : 804. 1880.) 



The fact seems to have been overlooked hitherto that both the first and second 

 publications of the name Melica bulbosa Geyer are nomina nuda. The first 

 publication of the name, with a description appended, is that of Thurber in 

 the botany of California, and while the species there described is not the 

 original plant of Geyer at all , nevertheless the name must stand for the 

 plant there described. 



The first description of Melica bella, the original species of Geyer, is in U. S. 

 Dept. Agr., Div. Bot., Bui. 13, Vasey's "Grasses of the Pacific Slope." It 

 is somewhat variable, but its caespitose habit distinguishes it from its imme- 

 diate allies. Geyer's plant, which may be designated the type of Melica bella, 

 and which is in the Gray Herbarium, was collected in a " rocky ravine. Upper 

 Platte." It is matched by Cusick's No. 900a, from Union County, Oregon. 



STIPA THURBERIANA Piper, nom. nov. (S. occidentalis Thurb. in Wilkes 

 U. S. Explor. Exped. 1 7 : 483. 1874, not U. S. Geol. Explor. 40th Par. 5 : 380. 

 1871.) 



Much confusion has arisen in the names of the above two Stipas. Thurber first 

 described as Stipa occidentalis a plant collected by Pickering and Brecken- 

 ridge in Washington on the "N. branch of the Columbia," which was not 

 published, however, until 1874. In the mean time he had identified and 

 named Californian plants of Bolander's collection as Siqxt occidentalis, one 

 of which, No. 5038, from ' ' Yosemite Trail, " was taken by Watson as the 

 type of StijM occidentalis published in the Botany of the King Expedition 

 in 1871. 



Dr. Vasey in 1882 detected the fact that the form described as Stipa occidentalis 

 in the U. S. Geol. Explor. 40th Par., 1871 was different from that described 

 in Wilkes U. S. Explor. Exped. 1874, but in segregating them, imfortu- 

 nately renamed the one which had first been published, namely, the plant 

 described in the U. S. Geol. Explor. 40th Par. 1871. 



It is clear, therefore, that the name '' Stqxt occidentalis'' must pertain to the 

 plant published in the U. S. Geol. Explor. 40th Par. 1871, and consequently 

 the plant of the Wilkes' U. S. Explor. Exped. 1874, is here renamed. 



Stipa occidentalis Thurber, in Watson U. S. Geol. Explor 40th Par. 5 : 380. 1871. 

 {S. stricta Yasey, Bui. Torr. Bot. Club, 10:42. 1883, not Lamarck, Tabl. 

 Encycl. 1:158. 1791. S. stricta sparsifloraY asey, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 

 3:51. 1892. S. oregonensis Scribn., U. S. Dept. Agr. Div. Agros. Bui. 17: 

 \.ZQ,fig. 42G, 1899.) 



