232" GRAMINE.E. CalamcKjrostis. 



Varies with the h'aves flat exccjit near tlie a])ex, or nil strictly convolute ; very iiah; green. The 

 jianicle is soiiietinn'S coiitiiiuoiis, but usually the lowest and sometimes the lower two fascicles 

 ol' rays are scnaratcil l>y au iucli or so of the naked axis ; color dark brownish or blackish jiuriile, 

 greou and dark i»iii|ilc, or straw-cohired throughout. 



8. C. Aleutica, 'I'rin. Culms stout, 2 to 5 feut liiyh, erect or sul)j,'eniculate 

 below, smooth except at top : leaves erect, rather rigid, those of the culm Hat, long- 

 attenuate, about a foot long and 4 or 5 lines })road, rough on both sides ; ligule ovate 

 or truncate; sheaths very loose, mostly much shorter than the internodes : panicle 

 very rough, 6 to 10 inches long, an inch wide or less, rather loose, subflexuose at 

 top, somewhat intermitted ;' rays 2 inches long or less, in crowded clusters, the 

 branches tlower-bearing to the base : spikelets 21 to 3 lines lon^', mostly exceeding 

 the pedicels, pale or brownish : glumes nearly equal, lanceolate, acuminate, mem- 

 branaceous, roughish all over : palets like the glumes in texture and but slightly 

 shorter, the lower acutish, minutely 4toothed and soon lacerate, nearly smooth, its 

 straight or curved awn inserted just below the middle and barely as long; hairs 

 scarcely half as long and about e(iualling the sparse tuft of the very minute rudi- 

 ment ; upper palet roughish on the two conspicuous nerves, shortly 2-toothed and 

 ciliate at apex. — Bong. Veg. Sitch. 171 ; Hook. Fl. IJor.-Ani. ii. 241 ; Griseb. in 

 Ledeb. Fl. Iioss. iv. 427 ; (iray, Proc. Am. Acad. iv. 80. C. albicans, IJuckl. I'roc. 

 Acad. Philad. 1862, 92 ; Gray, same, 334. 



San Franci.sco, Oakland, etc. (Bolandcr), and northward to Washington Territory and Alaska. 

 This is the most robust sitecies of the coast and forms dense tufts on the hillside.s. The lower 

 leaves break oil near the sheath, leaving th('se erect and rigid. The iianiclo is sonictimes ]>alc 

 straw-color, but generally more or less tinged with brownish-iairple and sonietinu's of the bronze- 

 color so noticeable in some species of yi//-« from the northwest coast; the palets are sometimes 

 slightly colored also. It varies with the lower glume acuminate, considerably longer than the 

 upper and over 3 lines long. 



9. C. Bylvatica, DC. Culms erect, rather rigid, 1 to 2 feet liigli, clothed at 

 base by crowded dead sheaths : radical leaves reaching nearly to the jtanicle ; culm 

 leaves 3 to 8 inches long, the ui)permost shorter, all less than 2 lines wide, attenuate- 

 pointed, more or less scaltrous and involute ; ligule about a line long, lacerate ; 

 sheaths more or less equalling the internodes, rarely fringed at the throat, the ujtper- 

 most very loose : panicle inclosed at base when young, si)ikc-like, strict, 3 or 4 

 inches long, about i inch wide, very dense, often slightly interrupted below, pale to 

 dark-puri)le throughout ; rays mostly in lives, an inch long or less, appressed and 

 like the rhachis very rough : spikelets 3 to 3i lines long, on short roughened pedi- 

 cels : glumes ovate-lanceolate, very acute, the upper distinctly 3-nerved, scabrous, 

 a little exceeding the palets : lower palet in texture like the glumes, acute, 4-toothed, 

 scabrous, grooved on the back ; awn attached very near the l)ase, twisted and rough 

 below, bent at the middle and exseited more than half the length of the ghnnes ; 

 hairs unequal, the longest at the sides about \ as long as the i)alet ; upper palet thin, 

 hyaline, broadly 2-nerved, 2-toothed ; rudiment stout, including its hairs about )| the 

 length of the palet. — Keichenb. Icon. Fl. (Jerm. t. 138; Griseb. in Ledeb. Flor. 

 Itoss. iv. 42G ; Gray, 1. c. ; "Watson, 15ot. King Fxp. 379. C. pnrpiiiascens, 11. 15r., 

 App. IJichards. Voy. 3. 



Mount Dana, at V2,500 feet altitude, and on the .sea-coast {Bohindcr) ; Oregon (NultalJ) ; 

 Humboldt Mountains, Nevaila {Walsmi) ; Rocky Mountains of Colorado by several collectors. 

 Also in northern and nuddle Eurojte and Siberia. All the North American specimens have a 

 much denser and stricter jmnicle than any from Kurojte with which we have been able to comiiari! 

 them, though those collected in Mendocino County by liolander (without number) approach tlu'm 

 in this respect. The plant seems to be much more leafy at the coast than upon the mountains, 

 the latter usually having more rigid culms and the leaves mostly involute. The Mendocino 

 specimens also show a distinct ring of hairs at the junction of the blade and sheath, a character 

 given for the European plant. The color of the panicle is very variable, running from greeni.sh 

 straw-color through various degrees of ^tnrjile to deep purjtle all over ; these ditb lences some- 

 times occurring in specimens of the sanu- set show that the purple form cannot be regarded as a 

 variety even. Sometimes the lower sheaths are purple-tinged, and in specimens with dark-colored 

 glumes the lower palet also pal takes of this color more or less. 



