192 Bicknell: Ferns and flowering plants of Nantucket 



form grows in close tufts and has geniculate, spreading, or ascend- 

 ing culms, and much more open, interrupted panicles often 1.5 dm. 

 long and 2-4 cm. wide. Contrasting remarkably with these is a 

 very definitely characterized form which was collected Sept. 2, 1904, 

 on damp sandy levels by a pond on the south shore. It had pro- 

 duced numerous stolon-like leafy stems which crept over the sand 

 for a distance of 1-2 feet and bore numerous short, firm leaves 

 and short, leafy branches springing from many of the nodes ; flower- 

 ing culms 1.5-3.5 dm. in length, panicles close, narrowly oblong 

 3 6.5 cm. long, 0.5-1 cm. thick ; leaf-blades 3-5 cm. long, 1-2 mm. 

 wide, firm, rough on both surfaces and involute-attenuate at apex, 

 ligule I—I. 5 mm. long; inflorescence, leaf-sheaths, and culms 

 strongly tinged with purple. This grass agrees closely with the 

 description of Agrostis depressa Vasey of the Northwest Coast (see 

 A. S. Hitchcock, U. S. Dept. Agric. PI. Ind. Bull. 68 : 28, 29), 

 and the illustration of a specimen from Oregon {loc. cit. pi. 6) 

 would answer almost perfectly for the Nantucket plant. This 

 plant was in fresh flower when collected, whereas in the common 

 meadow forms the panicles were completely dried. 



Agrostis hvemalis (Walt.) B. S. P. 



Trichodium laxifloram Michx. 



Common in sandy damp places and pond shores. The Nan- 

 tucket grass of this composite species is clearly the plant of 

 Michaux, whatever Walter's Cornncopiae hyemalis may have been. 

 It is characterized by greatly elongated panicle-branches, slender- 

 pedicelled, not crowded spikelets, the empty glumes narrowly 

 acuminate, 2-2.5 mm. long; flowering scale narrow, 1.25 mm. 

 long; basal leaves numerous, setaceous ; culm leaves broader, 1-2 

 mm. wide. 



* Agrostis elata (Pursh) Trin. 



Common in sphagnum bogs and wet places. A late-flowering 

 grass, coming into bloom in late August and September, some- 

 times growing in close masses and becoming conspicuous from its 

 purple panicles. 



This grass seems never to become as tall and strongly devel- 

 oped on Nantucket as in the sandy swamps of New Jersey and 

 Long Island, and is often a small and flaccid quite inconspicuous 

 bog plant. In favorable situations, however, it attains a growth 



