474 Bicknell : Ferns and flowering plants of Nantucket 



panicle purple, at maturity more or less exserted, sometimes for 

 12 cm., the very rough branches erect, erect-ascending or slightly 

 spreading, 1-2 dm. long, borne in whorls of 3-1 1 on the lower 

 nodes and of 2-5 above; the internodes 2-4.5 cm - m length; 

 branches 6-12 cm. long, branched usually well above the middle 

 or towards the ends ; spikelets clustered towards the ends of the 

 short branchlets, mostly very short-pedicelled or some even sub- 

 sessile ; empty glumes 1-2 mm. long, subequal or unequal, acute 

 to abruptly acuminate, scabrous on the keel ; lemma 0.5-1 mm. 

 long, blunt. 



N/Type deposited in the herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden. 



Closely related to Agrostis hyemalis, with which it has hitherto 

 been confused, but differing in many essential points. A. ante- 

 cedens is a much smaller plant than A. hyemalis, commonly not 

 over half the size, with much shorter and narrower involute leaves, 

 their sheaths much shorter instead of longer than the inter- 

 nodes. In A. hyemalis, the ample diffuse panicle is ordinarily 

 more or less included at its base and is often more than half the 

 length of the entire plant ; in A. antecedens, it is relatively much 

 shorter, more or less peduncled, and differs further in relatively 

 much shorter, less widely spreading branches, which are less num- 

 erous in the lower whorls and more numerous from the middle 

 ones. In A. hyemalis, the branches are commonly branched at or 

 below the middle ; in A. antecedens, well above the middle or towards 

 the end ; also, the ultimate flowering branchlets are much shorter 

 than in A. hyemalis and the flowers, which are on much shorter 

 pedicels, are manifestly smaller and more clustered ; the empty 

 glumes are commonly less unequal, relatively broader and less 

 tapering, but more acuminate, the scabrous dorsal nerve less pro- 

 nounced, the lemma shorter and less acute, but relatively longer as 

 compared with the empty scales. 



The distinctness of the two plants is further attested Y 

 their different flowering periods, A. antecedens being primariy 

 a grass of the spring and early summer, A. hyemalis of the mi - 

 summer and fall. Both species are common on Long Islan , 

 where A. antecedens comes into flower from the middle of May 

 ' early June and is in its prime by the middle of the latter mont^, 

 although sometimes persisting into September, while A. &f"*Z 

 begins to bloom rarely earlier than July and may be found fres J 

 in flower as late as mid-November. 



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