Calamagrostis. GRAMINE^E. 279 



rudiment of a second floret. Some, botanists give this section the rank of a genus, leaving in 

 <Jaliiuifjr<Kt,is only the species in which the rudiment is lacking. While none of the species are 



cultivated as pasture or meadow grasses, C. Canadensi-s is of considerable agricultural importance, 

 as it forms a large share of the "wild hay" cut upon the western prairies. C. arcnuria, Roth, 

 witli very large (^ inch) spikelets crowded in a dense cylindrical spike, though abundant upon 



both shores of the Atlantic, does not appear to have been found upon the western coast. In some 

 parts of Europe and on the New England coast, it has been planted to restrain blowing sands, its 

 tough rootstocks extending for 20 or 30 feet and binding the sand very effectively. It is a coarse 

 rigid grass and distasteful to cattle except when very young. Some European botanists refer it 

 to Psammn, Beauv., and others to Ammophila, Host. 



Panicle loose and open, the spikelets mostly tinged with purple. 



Hairs of the hyaline lower palet copious, about equalling it or some- 

 times a little shorter. 



Spikelets less than 2 lines long. 1. C. CANADENSIS. 



Spikelets 2 lines long or more. 2. C. LANGSDOUFFII. 



Hairs copious and one-third to one-half shorter than the palet. 3. C. DESCHAMPSIOIDES. 



Hairs scanty, less than one-fourth the length of the palet. 



Plant tall (2 to 3 feet). Leaves ample and flat. 4. C. BoLANDElir. 



Plant dwarf (6 to 15 inches). Leaves convolute-setaceous. 5. C. BIIKWEUI. 



Panicle strict and narrow, its short branches erect and appressed after 

 flowering : lower palet membranaceous, sometimes of similar 

 texture to the glumes. 

 Hairs at base of the floret nearly equalling or about one-third shorter 



than the palet and exceeded by those of the rudiment. 



Spikelets 2 to 2 lines long. Glumes very thick. 6. C. CRASSIGLUMIS. 



Spikelets 1 lines long. 7. C. STRICTA. 



Hairs short, barely half as long as the palet. 



Awn from below the middle of the palet and but little exceeding it. 8. C. ALEUTICA. 

 Awn from near the base of the palet and long-exserted. 9. C'. SYLVATICA. 



* Panicle loose and open, mostly tinged with purple. 



1. C. Canadensis, Beauv. Culms tall, erect, smooth, 3 to 5 feet high, rarely 

 branching below : leaves about a foot long, 2 to 4 lines wide, flat, minutely scabrous : 

 ligule short, lacerate ; sheaths closely appressed, shorter than the internodes, smooth 

 or slightly roughened : panicle 4 to 6 inches long, oblong, the common axis and rays 

 scabrous : spikelets from 1 to If lines long : glumes lanceolate, acute : lower palet 

 nearly as long, obtuse and more or less 2-toothed at the apex, surrounded by copious 

 white hairs, and awned on the back from near the middle with a very delicate bristle 

 not much stouter than the hairs, and usually barely equalling or rarely slightly ex- 

 ceeding the palet ; upper palet a little shorter : rudiment very minute. Torrey, Fl. 

 K. York, ii. 444, t. 150; Gray, Proc. Arner. Acad. iv. 77, and Man. 615, t. 8. 

 Arundo Canadensis, Michx. Fl. i. 73. C. Mexicana, Nutt. Gen. i. 46, excl. syn. 

 Pers. Cinna (?) Purskii, Kunth, Euum. i. 208. 



Moist places, inostly in the Sierra Nevada (Hillebrand, Bolandcr), to Oregon (ffowell), and 

 British Columbia, and from subarctic America to Pennsylvania and New Mexico. In the older 

 States, where this grass is abundant, it is known by the not very descriptive nam^ of " Blue 

 Joint," and is regarded as a valuable meadow grass, though it is encouraged rather than culti- 

 vated. By some the hay is coiisidered nearly as nutritious as that from Timothy (Phlcum pratense). 

 Large quantities are cut on the prairies, it yielding in rich soil very heavy crops. 



2. C. Langsdorffii, Trin. Culm, leaves and panicle as in C. Canadensis : spike- 

 lets 2 to 3 lines long : glumes lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, attenuate-acuminate, 

 often cinereously strigose-pubescent : awn stouter than in the preceding aiid often 

 slightly exceeding the palet. Gram. Uni-Sesquifl. 225 ; Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. 

 iv. 77. C. Oregonensis, Buckl. in Proc. Phil. Acad. 1862, 92, in part; Gray, 

 same, 334. 



Calaveras County (Hillcbrand) ; Oregon (Tolmic, NiMull), and northward to Arctic America. 

 Found also in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the Rocky Mountains, and in the north- 

 ern regions of both continents. Liable to be confounded with C. Canadensis, from which it is 

 mainly distinguished by its longer and more acute glumes and its stouter and (usually) exserted 

 awn. In the California!! specimens the glumes barely exceed two lines long, being precisely like 

 the Oregon specimens of Nuttall (0. Columbiensis, Nutt. in herb.), which Dr. Gray (Revision of 



