-*"V. 



** NOTE and COMMENT ~ 



A Remarkable Grass. — One of the most remarkable 

 grasses that I have encountered in the course of many years' 

 collecting was found on ballast at Linnton, Oregon, in 

 August, 1915. It was not in flower when first observed, 

 and only an expert agrostologist could have suspected that 

 it was a grass at all. I was inclined to surmise that it 

 was a Juiicus of some sort, though it lacked the dark 

 green color characteristic of that group. At a later visit 

 it was found in flower, but the aspect was none the less 

 striking and unfamiliar. It had a few short, stiff, prickly- 

 pointed leaves near the base, and a long, leafless, flexuous 

 solid culm, without nodes. The inflorescence, contrary to all 

 accepted rules for the grass family, was lateral instead of ter- 

 minal, and the long naked culm above the panicle terminated 

 in a sharp point. The stems were as elastic and tough as steel 

 wire, and made it most difficult to handle in press and while 

 mounting. It was finally identified by Professor A. S. 

 Hitchcock as Eragrostis cyperoides (Thunb. ) Beauv., assigned 

 by Stapf in the Flora Capcnsis to "shifting sands and sand- 

 dunes. Cape Colony and German Southwest Africa". According 

 to Professor Hitchcock, it has never before been reported from 

 the United States, or from any other region than the one above 

 named. Its remarkable elasticity would enable it to keep its 

 culms above the surface of the most shifting and unstable sand- 

 dune, and it might prove very useful as a sand-binder. It 

 covered a large area the first season, but entirely disappeared 



