436 Piper: Poa gracillima and its allies 



smooth, and shining, 10-30 cm. high: sheaths glabrous, famtly 

 striate, often purplish, shorter than the internodes; blades narrow, 

 soft, smooth, folded or sometimes flat, 8-12 cm. long; ligules 

 scarious, those of the culm 1-2 mm. long, of the innovations 

 nearly obsolete: panicle loose, often one-sided, 5-10 cm. long, 

 usually pale-green, sometime purplish, the slender, nearly smooth 

 rays in about five series of 2 or 3 each : spikelets broadly lanceo- 

 late, 5~7 mm. long, 3-5-flowered: empty glumes lanceolate, 

 .-smooth, scarious-margined, 3-nerved, the lower about 3 mm., the 

 supper 4 mm. long ; flowering glume ovate, acutish, sparsely crisp- 

 ipuberulent at base, the lateral nerves disappearing in the scarious 

 -apex ; palet as long as the flowering glume, notched at apex, the 

 nerves ciliate-scabrous. 



Type specimens collected at Multnomah Falls, Oregon, June 

 25, 1904, Piper 64S9' This is the common Poa on the cliffs 

 along the Columbia River, heretofore confused with P. gracilhma 

 Vasey. 



The type of Sporobohis Bolanderi Vasey is also from Mult- 

 nomah Falls, and is an overmature specimen from which most of 

 the spikelets have fallen, which led to its being mistaken for a 

 Sporobohis, On account of its poor condition, 1 indicate a new 

 type for the species. 



V 



Poa alcea sp. nov. 



Perennial, tufted, with numerous innovations : culms slender, 

 terete, erect, smooth, 2- or 3-jointed, 30-50 cm, high : sheaths 

 •smooth, shorter than the internodes, often purplish ; blades soft 

 and smooth, narrowly hnear, folded or loosely involute, 8-15 

 cm. long ; ligules scarious, ovate, decurrent, those of the culm- 

 leaves 2-4 mm. long, of the basal leaves shorter : panicle lax, 

 pyramidal, often somewhat drooping, 5-12 cm. long; rays in 

 about 5 series, mostly in twos and threes, and unequal, sparsely 

 :scabrous : spikelets oblong, 6-9 mm. long, mostly 5 -flowered, 

 pale-green or somewhat purple-tinged: empty glumes smooth, 

 scarious-margined, oblong-lanceolate, acutish, the lower i -nerved 

 or sometimes 3-nerved, 3 mm. long, the upper longer, somewhat 

 broader, 3-nerved; flowering glume thin-membranous, elliptic- 

 ovate, obtuse, 3.5-4 mm. long, silvery-puberulent near the base, 

 the lateral nerves vanishing in the scarious apex ; palet oblong, 

 notched at apex, as long as the flowering glume, the nerves ciliate- 

 scabrous, the lateral portion half as broad as the internerve. 



Abundant on Elk Rock near Portland, Oregon, where it was 

 collected June 3, 1904, Pz/rr, 6463. The following specimens 

 also are referred here, all of Oregon : . 



