STAPFIA. Ill 



ing stigmatic portion). Ovary apparently glabrous; fruit unknown. 



A laxly decumbent, pale-green, alkali grass, remarkable among 

 California grasses for the tassel of empty glumes at the apex of the 

 raceme, the fan-shaped, many-nerved flower-inclosing bracts, and 

 the broad, loosely-sheathing leaves undifferentiated into sheath and 

 blade. The leaves are sessile, and their loosely-sheathing bases 

 appear to demonstrate clearly that the homology of the sheath of 

 grass-leaves is with the base of the blade, and not with the petiole 

 and its stipules. 



T3'pe locality: near Princeton, Colusa County, California, border- 

 ing rain-pools on the hard, uncultivated, alkali "goose-lands," beside 

 the stage-road to Norman; May 26, 1898, J. Burtt Davy. 



Type specimens in the herbarium of the University of California, 

 at Berkeley, in the United States National Herbarium, Washington, 

 D. C, and in the Kew Herbarium. 



It was not possible to obtain samples of the peculiar soiHn which 

 Stapfia grew for analysis of salt-content, but soils from adjacent 

 areas, within a distance of 1 or 2 miles, showing the same color, 

 texture, and vegetation (except for the absence of this and one 

 other grass) have been analyzed by Dr. R. H. Loughridge, of the 

 Agricultural Experiment Station. These show the following salt- 

 content in 5 feet of soil. 



Samples 1-5. Samples 6-11. 



Sodium sulphate, 8.490 per cent. 1.098 per cent. 



Sodium carbonate, .017 per cent. .476 per cent. 



Sodium chloride, .171 per cent. .009 per cent. 



Total salts, 8.678 per cent. 1.583 per cent. 



Heleochloa schaznoides (L.) Host. Growing with Stapfia Colu- 

 sana, I found a curious little grass, which appeared to be a 

 Crypsis, but which failed to agree iii essential points with the 

 descriptions of C. aculeata. Dr. Stapf pronounces it to be a " very 

 dwarf state of Heleochloa schamoides, Host (Crypsis schaznoides 

 Larak.) with the habit of Crypsis aculeata." It is a native of the 

 Mediterranean region^, and temperate Asia,. and has been found as 

 a ballast-weed ''sparingly introduced " on waste ground near Phila- 

 delphia. Its occurrence in the Sacramento -Valley of California is 

 exceedingly interesting. At first sight it might seem indubitable 

 that it had been introduced with seed-grain, along with Centaurea 



