Bicknell : Ferns and flowering plants of Nantucket 199 



! 



r 



rubra\ no. 1568, Halifax Harbor, Sept. 2-6, 1901, herb. N. Y. 

 Bot. Garden, may be especially cited. 

 ; The other grass here discussed is found on the plains and 



commons and even far out on the moorland, where it is often to 

 be seen rising among masses of bearberry and other low-growing 

 I plants of sandy soils. It also occurs in more strongly developed 



form on the borders of salt marshes. It is of either tufted 

 or scattered habit, but possesses the character of extra-vaginal 

 offshoots, held to be determinative of F. rubra among our eastern 

 species. This character, however, is often only obscurely devel- 

 oped and usually takes the form of short, suberect offshoots or 

 innovations, rather than well-defined stolons. In its commonest 

 form, it is a very slender glaucescent grass 4-5 dm. high, the leaves 

 of the shoots erectly clustered about the culms, very narrow and 

 involute, 2-3 dm. long, their lower sheaths puberulent, the basal 

 ones membranous, brownish, and distinctly veined, not broadened, 

 pale and closely massed together as in F. ovina ; but the flowering 

 scales are 4.5-6 mm. long, subterete, short-awned, and often gla- 

 brous and shining, though sometimes slightly scabrellous. 



Stouter forms become 6-7.5 dm. tall, with broader, less invo- 

 lute leaves and more open, longer-branched panicle sometimes 

 15 cm. long, the flowering scales 5.5-7.5 mm. in length, the 

 empty glumes proportionately large. This grass has been fre- 

 quently determined as F. ovina duriuscula (L.) Hack., from which 

 it is altogether distinct. It is the F. duriuscula L. of Torrey's 

 Flora of New York and is a characteristic coastwise species of 

 Long Island and New Jersey. I am strongly of the opinion that 

 it is a native grass distinct from true F rubra. When observed on 

 Nantucket both of these grasses were well past maturity, making 

 impossible a thorough study in the field. 



Festuca pratensis Huds. 



Streets and grassy lots in the town and in outlying fields. 

 Probably more generally distributed, but not readily noticeable 

 late in the season after its spikelets have fallen. Festuca elatior L. 

 was not observed. 



* Bromus tectorum L. 



A few plants on the sandy border of Mill Street not far from 



