318 GRAMINE^E. Festuca. 



The typical form and the var. duriuscula have been collected at various localities in the Sierra 

 Nevada and elsewhere (Bolander, Lcmmon), and are found in the mountains eastward to New 

 England and far northward. The other varieties are high alpine and arctic forms, which occur 

 in the Rocky Mountains and Oregon and northward, and are to be expected in the hi^h Sierra 

 Nevada. The species in one or more of its several forms is found in most mountainous countries, 

 including New Zealand and Australia. Its foliage is not abundant but very nutritious, and it is 

 highly valued as a pasture grass, especially for sheep. 



5. F. gracillima, Hook. Culms 1 to 2 feet high ; plant mostly smooth through- 

 out : radical leaves copious, narrowly setaceous, reaching nearly or quite to the base 

 of the panicle ; culm-leaves mostly 2, 2 to 3 inches long, about a line wide below, 

 very finely scabrous on the upper surface ; ligule brief : panicle 3 to 4 inches long, 

 the erect branches mostly in pairs, the lower sometimes in threes or fours, 1-4- 

 flowered, the rhachis and flattened rays barely scabrous; spikelets about 6 lines 

 long, 6 - 9-flowered : the upper and much broader 3-nerved glume about half as long 

 as its floret, both broadly scarious-margined ; joints of the rhachis scabrous-pubes- 

 cent : florets 3 lines long, rather distant ; lower palet with a small well-defined 

 callus below, intermediate nerves indistinct, herbaceous with a wide scarious margin, 

 obscurely puberulent above, acuminate and mucronate or with a distinct awn about 

 a line long. Antarct. Voy. 383 ; Steud. Syn. Gram. 312. 



In the Sierra Nevada, at 8,000 feet altitude, Bolander. This, with the exception of being 

 shorter awned, agrees well with specimens collected on Magdalena Island by Cunningham and 

 named at Kew. The plant was originally collected at the Straits of Magellan. The foliage, etc., 

 are pale green, the spikelets being sometimes slightly reddish or brownish. The awn varies 

 greatly, the same plant furnishing both awnless and awned florets. The contrast between the 

 almost filiform radical foliage and the fiat leaves of the culms is very marked. It differs from any 

 form of F. ovina in the erect branches of its fewer-flowered panicle, larger spikelets, and broader 

 glumes having with the palets a wide scarious margin. 



6. F. scabrella, Torr. Culms 1 to usually 3 or 4 feet high, crowded below with 

 leafless sheaths, and twice longer than the numerous scabrous radical leaves : culm 

 leaves rarely more than 2, the upper 2 to 8 inches long, about 2 lines wide at base, 

 long-pointed ; sheaths scabrous or rough pubescent, hairy at the junction with the 

 blade, and subauricled with callused hairy processes ; ligule a ciliate fringe : panicle 

 3 to 6 inches long, the lower rays distant in pairs, spreading, naked below ; spikelets 

 about 6 lines long, 4 - 6-flowered ; florets rather distant : upper glume the longer 

 and half as long as its floret : lower palet membranous, 5-nerved, rough, with a 

 narrow scarious margin, pointed, or with an awn a line long or less ; upper palet 

 conspicuously 2-toothed, equalling or sometimes exceeding the lower. Hook. Fl. 

 Bor.-Am. ii. 252, t. 233 ; Torrey, Pacif. K. Eep. iv. 157 ; Boland. in Trans. Calif. 

 Agric. Soc. 1864-5, 141. 



Oakland (Bolander), also in the Rocky Mountains. The plant originally described and figured 

 was from the Rocky Mountains, and scarcely one-fourth the size of the specimens collected within 

 this State. A comparison of these with the original specimens in the Torrey herbarium shows 

 them to be the same except in size. It hardly belongs to Festuca, and a thorough revision would 

 probably place it with the ambiguous species of Melica. Among the many species of different 

 genera known as " Bunch-grass " this is regarded as one of the most valuable, cattle being very 

 fond of it, especially in winter. The blade of the leaf finally breaks away, leaving the sheath, a 

 peculiarity stated by Mr. Bolander to be very constant. 



7. F. pauciflora, Thunb. Culms 1| to 3 feet high, the radical leaves about 

 half as long ; culm leaves sometimes 2 lines wide, long attenuate-pointed, and with 

 the sheaths scabrous ; ligule very short, somewhat auriculate : panicle 6 to 1 2 inches 

 long, rather narrow ; rays in pairs, the lower very remote, spreading, capillary, 

 mostly branched, flower-bearing above the middle ; spikelets about 4-flowered : 

 glumes narrow, acute or somewhat obtuse, the upper about twice as large as the 

 lower and barely half as long as the first floret ; rhachis scabrous, the florets readily 

 deciduous : lower palet 5-nerved, strongly scabrous, about 3 lines long, with a 

 slender awn about as long ; upper palet quite equalling the lower, very rough 

 above : ovary hairy. Fl. Jap. 52 ; Munro in Perry's Japan Exp. ii. 328. F. oca'- 



