284 GRAMINE.E. Stipa. 



Sierra Valley, Bolandcr, May, 1871. The specimens are immature, and leave it for riper 

 materials to complete the description. Except in its very different panicle it accords well with 

 Eriocoma, and it is preferred to modify the generic character rather than add a new genus. The 

 awn in this falls even earlier than in E. cuxpidala, and is rarely to lie found excejit in those 

 spikelets that are still included ])y the upper sheatii. The collector sent this gi-ass several years 

 ago with a set of his species oi Slipa, to which genus he supposed it to belong, with the retpiest that, 

 should it be new, it be named in honor of Dr. Webber of Sierra Valley, an esteemed ]iliysician who 

 had aided him in his botanical explorations, and upon whose estate the grass was discovered. 



25. STIPA, Linn. Featiieu-Grass. 

 Panicle open, with few spreading branches, or sometimes crowded and narrow. 

 Spikelets 1-flowered, the cylindrical floret with an obconic bearded and often elon- 

 gated sharp-pointed callus, in our species shorter than the glumes, and readily fall- 

 ing at maturity. Glumes subequal, membranaceous, often terminated by a long 

 subulate point. Lower palet coriaceous, cylindrical-involute, inclosing the mostly 

 shorter upper one, entire at the apex or terminating in two minute sometimes hya- 

 line teeth, naked or with a crown of short hairs, conspicuously awned. Awn articu- 

 lated with the palet, often caducous, geniculate below, glabrous or pubescent or 

 plumose with spreading hairs. Scales 3. Stamens usually 3, sometimes 1 or 2 ; 

 anthers often bearded at the apex. Ovary stipitate, smooth : styles 2, short ; stig- 

 mas plumose with simple hairs. Grain cylindrical, smooth, free from but inclosed 

 in the palets. 



A genus of perennials, with mostly involute leaves and early deciduous florets, represented in 

 almost every part of the world. Some of our species, under the not very distinctive name of 

 " Bunch-grass," are among the valued kinds of forage in the Sierra Nevada. Slipa {Macro- 

 china, Kth.) tciiacismna, of southern Europe and northern Africa, forms a portion of the 

 "Esparto grass," laigely used in paper-making. S. pennata of Europe (a variety of which occurs 

 in Arizona) is an old garden plant, cultivated for its beautifully plumose awns ; the panicles, 

 which are 6 to 12 inches long, are imported in considerable quantities for "ornamental" pur- 

 poses, usually dyed in various brilliant and unnatural colors. 



* Awn for a part of its length plumose with silky hairs. 

 Foliage, panicle, etc., pale green. 

 Lower palet 2-lobed at apex. 

 Lower palet entire at apex. 

 Foliage, panicle, etc., tawny yellow. 



* * Awn not plumose, often strongly pubescent. 

 Panicle open with spreading often secund rays, which are few-flowered 

 above the middle. 

 Awn 6 inches long ; floret coarsely hairy. 

 Awn 3 inches or less in length. 



Lower palet tubereulate, partially hairy. 

 Lower palet hairy all over. 

 Panicle narrow, with mostly erect rays. 



Panicle small, 2 inches long ; floret 2 lines long, purplish. 

 Panicle large, 6 inches long or more. 



Lower palet with two distinct herbaceous teeth. 

 Lower palet with two more or less manifest hyaline teeth. 

 Floret less than three lines long. 

 Floret 3 to 5 lines long. 



Lower palet with copious long silkj' hairs. 

 Lower palet with short scattered hairs. 



* Awn for a pm-t of its length distinctly plumose ivith silky hairs. 



1. S. speciosa, Trin. & Rnpr. Culm 1 to 2 feet high : radical leaves half as 

 long as the culm, the others much shorter and with the sheaths minutely puberulent ; 

 upper sheath inHated, its leaf about 4 inches long, its ligule less than a line long, 

 that of the lower sheaths minute and fringed : panicle 6 to 8 inches long, included 

 below, contracted, its appressed rays mostly in pairs and 6 -8-flowere<l : glumes 



