Aira. GRAMINE.E. 297 



and scarious, 2-cleft, or truncate and denticulate above, with a slender bent or straight 

 awn on the back below the middle. Stamens 3. Ovary smooth : styles plumose to 

 the base. Grain oblong, free or adherent to the palets. 



Annuals and perennials, natives of temperate regions, the number of species estimated at about 

 30, though three times that number are described. The species here given belong to the section 

 Dcschampsia, Beauv., to which some botanists accord the rank of a genus. They are perennia s, 

 with the rhachis of the spikelet produced as a pedicel or rudiment beyond the attachment ot the 

 upper floret ; the lower palet is delicately 3 - 5-nerved, and eroded or toothed at the truncate sum- 

 mit, with the awn attached near the base ; grain not adherent to the palets. 



* Glumes barely equallbuj and mosthj shorter than the florets. 



1. A. crospitosa, Linn, Culms 2 to 4 feet high: leaves rather stiff, flat or 

 convolute : panicle 4 to 12 inches long, nodding above, the spreading capillary 

 branches flower-bearing above the middle; spikelets much compressed, shining, 

 brownish, lead-colored or purplish, about 2 linos long : lower palet very thin, silky- 

 hairy at base, irregularly toothed ; awn inserted near the base, very slender, equalling 

 or slightly shorter or longer than the palet. — Reichenb. Icon._ Fl. Germ. t. 96; 

 Trin. Icon. t. 253, 254. Deschampsia crespitosa, Beauv. ; Griseb. in Ledeb. Fl. Ross, 

 iv. 421. Aira Bottnica, Wahl. ; Trin. Icon. t. 255. A. arctica, Trin. :Mem. Acad. 

 St. Petersb. 1831, 5G. Deschampsia brevifolia, R. Br. in Parr. Voy. 191. 



San Francisco, and especially in the Sierra Nevada, from Kern River (Rothrock) to Oregon and 

 northward, Lya/l. It extends from New England westward across the continent and to Suka. 

 Very variable, especially in mountainous and high northern localities, its difl"erent forms having 

 been described as species. The dwarf mountain plant, 6 or 8 inches high, with a tuft ot short 

 setaceous leaves, is var. arctica, Trin., and Deschampsia brevifolia, R. Br. The awn is sometimes 

 considerably longer than the palet, when it is A. Bottnica, Wahl, and hardly a variety. Mr. 

 Bolander collected in Calaveras County specimens with longer spikelets than usual, some of 

 which are 3-flowered, in these respects agreeing with specimens labelled var. lungiflora by Truuus 

 in Herb. Torr. 



2. A. holciformis, Steud. Culms very stout, 2 to 5 feet high, from a dense 

 tuft of narrow stiff involute leaves 15 to 20 inches long; culm leaves distant and 

 narrow, the uppermost about 2 inches long : panicle erect, narrow, with suberect 

 rays, which are branched and flower-bearing to the base ; spikelets about 3 lines long, 

 short-pedicelled, nearly terete : glumes acute, rough on the nerves and near the 

 apex : lower palet ovate-lanceolate, membranaceous, rather regularly 4-toothed, smooth 

 and shining below, slightly scabrous near the tip, a silky tuft at base ; awn^ stout, 

 inserted near the base and barely exceeding the palet. — Syn. Gram. 221 ; Boland. 

 in Trans. Calif. Agric. Soc. 1864-65, 138. Deschampsia holciformis, Presl, Rel. 

 Ha;nk. i. 251. 



San Francisco and Oakland, Bolander, n. 1524, and n. 6071, which is in the collection labelled 

 A. cmspitosa, var. densiflora, and was probably so distributed. A very robust species with culms 

 as laro-e as a goose-quili. Both glumes and palets are yellowish-brown above and more or less 

 tinned with purnle below. Its erect and more dense panicle and the firmer texture of its narrower 

 spikelets distinguish this from any form of the preceding. Mr. Bolander says, 1. c, " It yields a 

 large bulk of hay in moist meadows, but of what quality I am unable to say." 

 % * Glumes longer than the florets. 



3. A. elongata, Hook. Culms very slender and weak, 1 to 3 feet high or 

 more : leaves long, very narrow, mostly flat and smooth ; ligule elongated : panicle 

 very long and narrow, occupying about one-third of the culm ; rays very unequal, 

 distant, mostly appressed, capillary and flower-bearing above the middle, scabrous : 

 glumes about '2 lines long, linear- subulate, nearly equal, 3-nerved, green arid scabrous 

 on the keel : lower floret on a short callus, the upper upon a very plumose joint two- 

 thirds as long as the lower ; lower palet about a line long, smooth and shining, with 

 a silky tuft at base, irregularly 5-toothed above, with a very slender awn from near 

 the base twice its own length or more ; lower palet of tiie upper floret sometimes 

 scabrous near the tip : terminal joint of the rhachis strongly plumose, about | as long 



