Rydberg : Rockv Mountain flora 537 



Fcstuca ovina pseudovina Piper, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 10 : 26, 



27. 1906. Not F. ovina pseudovina Hack. 1881. 



Densely cespitose, perennial, with intravaginal innovations; 

 stem 2-4 dm. high, slender, glabrous ; basal leaf-sheaths short, 

 closed only at the base, loose above ; ligules very short and rounded ; 

 leaf-blades very slender, 3-10 cm. long, less than half a millimeter 

 wide, strongly involute, in age becoming strongly striate ; panicle 

 very narrow and spike-like, 4-10 cm. long ; its branches erect or 

 nearly so, short; spikelets 4-6-flowered ; first empty glume 

 i-nerved, about 2 mm. long, the second 3-nerved, 2.5 mm. long; 

 floral glumes lanceolate, 3-5 mm. long, glabrous ; awn 1-2 mm. 

 long. 



This species is rather common on dry hillsides and mountains 

 from Saskatchewan to Colorado and British Columbia up to an 

 altitude of 3600 m. 



It has been mistaken for the European F. pseudovina Hackel. 

 The latter was based on F. ovina Host, Gram. Aust. 2 : //. 84. 

 This plate does not at all represent our North American plant. 

 The figure represents a small plant with a short open panicle, while 

 our plant has a very narrow, rather long panicle with erect branches. 

 Piper in his monograph (Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 10 : 27. 1905) 

 cites Host's plate no. 86, instead of no. 84. Whether this is a 

 mere misprint or whether Piper really had the former plate in mind, 



1 do not know. Plate 86, representing F. stricta, illustrates a plant 

 in habit much more like our plant. Whether Beal (Grasses N. Am. 



2 : 595) had in mind the same plant as Piper and myself is very 

 doubtful, as he cites only specimens from Michigan, and I have 

 seen no specimens of F. saximontana from that state. As the type 

 the following may be assigned : 



Alberta: Vicinity of Banff, 1899, W. C. MacCalla 2331 

 (type, in herb. N. Y. Bot. Gard.). 



Festuca calligera (Piper) sp. nov. 



Festuca amethystina aspcrrima Hack. ; Beal, Grasses N. Am. 2 : 



601. 1896. Not F. asperrima Link, 1822. 

 Festuca ovina calligera Piper, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 10 : 27. 



1906. 



This I think is specifically distinct from F. ovina. In the her- 

 baria at the New York Botanical Garden are found the following 

 specimens : 



