BOTANICA 



ETTE. 



Vol. 2. 



NOVEMBER, 1876- 



Ko. 1, 



Notes on Festuca Thtjrberi. — Among the botanical collections of the Expedi- 

 tion of Lieutenant Wheeler, in 1873, made in Colorado, was a Featuca, which the writer 

 described and published as Festuca Thurberi. The specimens were in a young, un- 

 developed condition, which prevented the recognition of their identity with the so-called 

 Festuca scabrella of that region of country. Some time afterwards Prof. Porter sent 

 3p3cimens which made the connection clear. Still, as the grass in question had been 

 referred to Festuca scabrella with some doubt, the writer entered into a critical investi- 

 gation of the same, and became satisfied that it was not the plant described by Hooker 

 in the Fl. Bor. Am. The plant described and figured in that work by Dr. Hooker was 

 collected in the Rocky Mountains by Drummond, and referred to F. scabrella, Torr. 

 Mss. Whether the species was ever published by Dr. Toi-rey we have not been able to 

 learn. Not having access to the original specimens upon which Dr. Torrey founded his 

 species, nor to those of Dr. Hooker, I could only compare the description given by 

 Dr. Hooker and his figure with the specimens of the grass from Colorado which has 

 been distributed in several coUecticjns as Festuca scabrella, or what I described as 

 Festuca Thurberi. It seems hardly possible to connect the two descriptions, and the 

 conclusion is, therefore, that there are two species under consideration. If, therefore, 

 Dr. Hooker's plant be cori'ectly referred to Festuca saibrella. the name Festuca TJiurberi 

 will still appl}' to the grass from Colorado and other portions of the Rocky 

 Mountains. A i'Vsiwaf from California has been distributed as F. scabrella. One also 

 occurs under that name in Mr. E. Hall's collection of Oregon plants. The specimensof 

 these pluftts which have comeundermy observatitm are certainly ditferent from the one 

 which I have described from Colorado. Whether they are the plant of Hooker's 

 Flora or not, I will not now undertake to decide. I append an abstract of contrasted 

 charficters of the two grasses under discussion, those of F. scabrella drawn from the 

 description in Hooker's Fl. Bor. Am., and those of F. Thurberi from Colorado speci- 

 mens. 



FestucH scabrella. — Culm 1 ft. high, 

 erect, cgespitosc, smooth, striate, chiefly 

 one-leaved; leaves narrowly linear, acu- 

 minate, scarcely 2 inches long, vagina very 

 long (under the lens scabrous); the remain- 

 ing leaves also glabrous, mostly radical, 

 with membranous sheaths, narrowly linear, 

 3-4 inches long, soon deciduous from the 

 sheath; panicle compound, 3-4 inches, 

 erect, branches sprei.ding, toward the api'X 

 spicate; spiUelets greenish-pnvple, 3-4 

 flowered, ovate, j^ inches long, to the 

 tocuh, or under the glass, minutely sca- 

 brous; iil antes uuequiil, acute, almost twice 

 shorter tiiau the flowers, nervehss, without 

 awns; flowers terete, outer valve anervcd, 

 extended into a very short beard, inner 

 valve lanceolate, fl^it, margin inflexed, 

 scabrous :it tiie flexules. 



Festuca Thurberi.— Cu]m 2-2)^ feet high, 

 erect, ciX'spitose, not conspicuously striate, 

 2-4 leaved; leaves rigid, involute. 6 inches 

 long, scabrous; radical leaves numerous, 

 involute, rigid, 1-1 H tt. long, very scabrous 

 on the martrin, sheaths somewhat mem- 

 branous, blade deciduous when old; pan- 

 icle compound, 3-5 inches, a little droop- 

 ing, 4-5 joints, branches slender, spreading 

 wiien ripe, single or in pairs, branching 

 below the middle; spikelets purplish, 

 oblong-lanceolate (or cylindrical when 

 young), wedge-shaped when exi)anded, 

 3-5-flovvered,"5-G lines long, slightly sca- 

 brous under the lens; glumes thin, mem- 

 branaceous, shorter than the flowers, of 

 nearly equal length, obtuse, or the lower 

 ones acutish, the upper ones convex, not 

 compressed, obscurely nerved, lower ones 

 sliglitly keeled; flowers cylindrical, con- 

 vex (not compressed), outer palet obscurely 

 5-nerved, lanceolate, acute or short cuspi- 

 date, minutely scabrous; inner palet nar- 

 row, slightly hispid on the keels. 



Geo. V.\sey. 



