CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE FI-OKA OK IOWA. 7 1 



7-nerved, irregularly cut at the apex, forming short awns, inner palet bidentate; 

 leaves broadly linear, flat, rough to the touch. — Carlton Hou.se Fort, on the Sas- 

 katchawan. This fine gi-a.ss is considered by Dr. Torrey to be the same as the /'\'s- 

 tuca borcalis, M. & K. The culm in our specimen is as thick as a swan's quill, 3-4 

 or more feet high; leaves 8-10 inches long, broadly linear-acuminate, rough to the 

 touch. Panicle a foot and more long, almost quite erect, a.s well as the subverticil- 

 late slender branches. Spikelet erect, yz-% of an inch long, scattered or sulifasci- 

 cled, sessile or pedicellate, generally 4-flowered. Glumes unequal, concave, rounded 

 at the back, not keeled, the outer one shorter than the florets, acute, entire at the 

 point, the middle nerve reaching beyond the point so as to form a short arista, there 

 are besides, on each side, two sliort lateral nerves; the inner glume as long as the 

 whole spikelet of florets, torn at the point, aristate, the middle nerve reaching be- 

 yond the point, there are besides two lateral nerves reaching to the apex, and two 

 intermediate shorter ones. Florets cylindrical, closely placed, with a tuft of white 

 hairs at the base of each; outer valve of the perianth jagged at the point, shortly 

 aristate, with 7 nerves reaching to the summit; the inner lanceolate, the margin in- 

 flexed, with two strong, green, ciliated nerves at the flexures, running out so as to 

 form a bifid apex. Hook. Flor. Bor. Am. 



Hooker gives the above under Festiica borealis, M. &: K. The spe- 

 cies was first described by Willdenow and referred to Anindo. In 

 1861, Dr. Gray revised and considerably extended the genus Graphe- 

 phorum (Proc. Am. Acad., V.), placing the present species in the first 

 section. The Iowa specimens, communicated by Mr. R. I. Cratty, 

 agree fully with the description, exce])t that the spikelets are not so 

 large, scarcely exceeding Vi of an inch in length. Pedicels of the 

 spikelets rough; awns formed by the nerves, esj^ecially of the glumes, 

 inconspicuous, and sometimes barely observable. It grows 3-5 feet 

 high in water, at the margin of lakes. The spot where found, some 

 five or six square rods, had an abimdance of individuals, and it 

 doubtless occurs at other lakes in Iowa and Minnesota. The range 

 given in Vasey's "Grasses of the United States" is from British 

 America to Alaska. It is now for the first time detected in the United 

 States. 



Camptosorus rhizophvli.US, Link, var. INTERMEDIUS, Arthur. — Root-stalk 

 short, ascending, clothed with a few dark-brown scales; stipe green, with a brown 

 base, containing a single rounded-triangular fibro-vascular bundle without accom- 

 panying sclerenchyma; fronds subcoriaceous, thinnish; sterile frond 2-4 inches long, 

 triangular-acuminate, sometimes prolonged and rooting, base broadly wedge-shape, 

 apex blunt; fertile frond 4-12 inches long, narrowly lanceolate, broadest close to 

 the base, greatly attenuated and prolonged, rooting at the apex; base acute, broadly 

 wedge-.shape, never cordate; veins strongly ascending, anastomosing and forming 

 about two series of areolae; sori few, oblong, sometimes in pairs, or confluent at 

 the upper part of the areolae; indusium smooth, delicate, with a sinuous margin; 

 spores ovoid, with broad anastomosing wings of irregidar width. — Sterile blade 



