126 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



Tliis liniidsome species I discovered ;it Willow Spring, Ari/ona, in 1874, at an alti- 

 tude of 719") feet, in damp places, among the oak woods, (No. 238.) It will be fig. 26 of 

 my forthcoming report. — J. T. Rothrock. 



Chima.ja. — A well known plant in New Mexico, where it is used to flavor roast 

 meats, to make bitters, and as a warming stomachic, proves to l)e an old species, i. e. 

 Gymopterus EeiuUeri, Gray. 



It (the root) has a most pleasant anisate odor when fresh and also when cooked. 

 What invests the plant with a special interest is the fact that its local repute has in- 

 duced certain parties to pi-opose it as the liasis of another new quack medicine. It is 

 probably of not more value than sundry other species of the order. — J. T. Rothrock. 



Some Oregon Gramiiste/e. — In the Centennial exhibit of Oregon, at Philadelphia, 

 was a collection of native grasses in bundles or sheaves, intended to show the grazing 

 capacity of tiiat State. I was much interested in these grasses and secured a quantity 

 for specimens. They consisted of 10 or 12 species, of which the following named ones 

 presented some features of interest: 



Agrostiti luicrophylla, Steud. This is called Wild Red-top, grows on bottom lands, 

 and averages 4 feet in height. This is considered by Prof. Thurber to be one of the 

 forms of A(/rostis exaratK, Trin. It is the form with awned flowers, and differs widely 

 from the A. cxurativ figured in Trinius' Si)ecies Graminum, Vol. 1, fig. 27, which is 

 unawned, slender, and with an open spreatling panicle. The A. nncrophylla is a strong 

 upright grower, with a rather narrow but dense panicle, which is G to 10 inches long, 

 the branches very numerous at each joint, mostly short but of uneciual length, and 

 rather appresssed at the axis. 



There were two sheaves under the name of Wild Rye grass, one of which was the 

 Elyiiius condematus, PresL, growing trom 5 to 8 feet high, said to be very nutritious but 

 too coarse for usual feed. The other was a much more slender grass of about :> feet 

 in height, the spike much resembling a rnWww; in fact, it seems to umic El ym'ix 

 with Triticiim. It is not a dwarf E. rondematuK, for the joints of the spike are more 

 distant, and instead of giving out o or 6 spikelets, there iire never more than two, and 

 in many cases the upper joints have only one spikelet. It answers to herbarium speci- 

 mens labeled Elynms triticoiden, Nutt., and I suppose it to be that plant. Ai^iwu-ently 

 the same plant is in the collection of Xantus, from Lower California, as Triticum. re- 

 j)ens, with which it is probably often confounded. 



Another sheaf was called Wild Fescue grass, from Eastern Oregon, "growing from 

 10 inches to 1^ feet high, full of seeds and very nutritious." This is probably the 

 GeratocMoa (Broiims) hreviaristata of Hooker, though smaller than his figui'e in Fl. 

 Bor. Am. It is likewise the same as is collected in the mountains of Nevada, Wyo- 

 ming, Utah and Colorado, and called B. hredarutntnx, and I hardly see how it can be 

 separated from the B. umuloides of Texas and Arizona. It seems to vary much in con- 

 sequence of altitude, soil and climate. The awn in the Oregon specimens is very short, 

 perhaps one-fifth the length of the lower palet, answering in this respect to the descrip- 

 tion and figure of Hooker. 



The remaining species which I shall mention was a kind of fescue growing 3 to 5 

 feet high, which I consider an undescribed species, and will here append its characters: 

 Festuca Oreoona.— Culms tall, 3 to 5 feet, rather slender, slightly scaln-ous. 

 Culm leaves few and distant, the sheaths 6 to 8 inches long, blade narrowly linear, 2 to 

 4 inches long ; sheaths scalirous. Panicle erect, narrow, strict, but loose ; branches 

 mostly in fives, very unequal, the shorter ones nearly sessile, the longer 1% to 2 inches, 

 flowering nearly to the base; spikelets a])out 3-flowered, 4 to 5 lines long, pedicels and 

 rachis hispid; glumes narrowly lanceolate, 2 to 2i< lines long, nearly equal to the lower 



