118 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



other localities the narrow, radical leaves nearly equal the culm in length. Sometimes 

 the leaves are nearly smooth, and again they are strongly pilose ; in some Oregon speci- 

 mens the lower sheaths are hirsute. The panicle, usually short and dense, is sometimes 

 elongated ( 6 inches or more), with erect or ascending lower branches 1-2 inches long. 

 The spikelets are from 2-5 fid., and vary in size from 1 A— 1 inches to 3-1 inches in 

 length, with a proportional variation in width. The glumes are thin and membrane- 

 ous with broad scarious margins, nearly smooth and sharply acuminate or obtuse, strongly 

 scabrous and firm in texture ( sub-coriaceous). The outer or empty glumes are always 

 unequal in size, and though generally of unequal length, they are sometimes equal or 

 nearly so; usually shorter than the spikelet, they sometimes equal or even exceed it. 

 In the tvpical plant the flowering glumes are very acute, often terminating in a short 

 awn. In some of our forms, however, they are obtuse, while from California come sam- 

 ples in which the flowering glume is slightly notched at the tip, and the mid-nerve ex- 

 tends between the lobes as a short mucronate point. These Californian specimens also 

 differ from all others examined in having the palere as long or even longer than their 

 glumes *. 



43. Eatonia Pennsylvania, Gray's Man. 626. This and E. obtusata, Gray, which I 

 also have from Kansas, vary a good deal in inflorescence and in the special characters 

 of the spikelets, and intermediate forms occur making it difficult to distinguish the one 

 from the other. In E. obtusata the spikelets are scarcely more than a line in length, 

 florets very obtuse, and the second glume is broader than it is long, and saccate around 

 the second floret. The panicle, usually erect and densely many-flowered, especially in 

 western specimens, is sometimes nutant and loosely few-flowered. Specimens of this 

 species are at hand from Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, 

 Belleville, (Canada,) Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Kansas, Utah, Washington Ter- 

 ritory, Arizona, and Montana. 



E. Pennsylvania is a taller and more robust species, with a larger and more open 

 panicle, spikelets 2-3 in. long, florets longer and usually more pointed, sometimes even 

 awned, while the second glume, although broad and obtuse, is not so broad in proportion 

 to its length as in E. obtusata. It has about the same distribution. 



Eragrostis major, Host. Gram. IV t. 24, 1809. Megastachya Eragrostis, Beau v. E. 

 poteoides, var. megastachya, Gray. Beauvois was not the author of E. poteoides as quoted 

 by authors. This name does not occur in Beauvois's work, nor is it applied to the figure 

 illustrating this species; it only appears in the index, without reference to any page of 

 the book, nor to any previously published species. Beauvois's work, here referred to, 

 was published in 1812, and even had he given this name — E. poseoides — Host's name 

 would take precedence, it being the earlier. E. minor Host — E. poteoides of authors, 

 not of Beauvois. 



21. Eragrostis pectinacea, Gray's Man. 632, Lesqx. Fl. Ark. 396. 



34. Eragrostis reptans, Nees., Gray's Man. 631. ( Poa reptans, Mich., Nutt. Fl. Ark. 

 146.) 



*Nuttall, in the Herb. Acad. Nat. Sei. Phila., proposed several names lor forms of this species. "K. 

 glabrata," "K. Oregona" and " K. melanthera" are all K. cristata. " K. Arkansana" and "K. Montana" 

 belong to K. nitida, Nutt. Gen. I 74. K. tuberosa, Nutt. Fl. Ark. 148; K. cristata, var. gracilis, Gray, a 

 species which 1 tbink ought to be restored. It is distinguished from K. cristata by the smaller size 

 of its spikelets, by its obtuse glumes, and especially by the much firmer (almost coriaceous) texture of 

 its glumes. In the proposed variety of K. nitida — var. Arkansana— (K. Arkansana, Nutt. in herb.), 

 the culms are stouter and more leafy ; the leaves are flat and longer than in the species, the upper one 

 3-5 inches long; panicle elongated (3-6 inches), the erect or slightly spreading lower branches 1-2 

 inches long. Spikelets 3-4 fid., in texture resembling those of K. nitida; quite unlike those of K. 

 cristata. 6. K. nitida Nutt, I 74. 48. K. nitida. (K. tuberosa Nutt. Fl. Ark. 148.) 47. K. nitida var. 

 Arkansana. ( K. Arkansana, Nutt. in herb.) 



