Atwpis. GRAMINEJ5. qaq 



Eureka and near San Francisco {Bolander) ; Sierra "Valley (Lrmnion) ; northward to Washin"- 

 ton Territory and east to the Saskatchewan, Nebraska and New Mexico ; also on both shores of 

 the Atlantic and in Asia. Variously referred by dilFerent authors, under numerous specific names, 

 to Poa, GlyiTrla, Frduca and Atropis. With s])ecimens from coast localities only it is not didicult 

 to make out both A. dlstans and A. maritinm ; the forms with few-dowered spikelets in s[)read- 

 ing panicles answering for the one, while those witii many-flowered spikelets on the solitary or 

 geminate rays of an erect and somewhat one-sided imnicle correspond with the description of 

 A. marUitwi. Specimens from numerous mountain localities sustain the view of Trinius, wlio 

 nnder Poa § Atropis (Mem. Acad. St. Petersb. 1831, 389) idaces Poa distam, Linn., P. maritima, 

 Huds., and several other related species as varieties of P. arcnaria, Ketz. In bringing them 

 together under Atropis it seems preferable to adopt one of the specific names by whicii they have 

 been heretofore well known. The specimens collected by Lemmon in Sierra Valley are from 

 4 to 10 inches high, but with a spreading panicle, and approach in size the form which has been 

 called Glyceria angustat.a, thougli in that the branches of the panicle are erect and rarely more 

 than 1-flowered. Bolander's plant collected at Eureka is exactly the European A. fcstucccformis, 

 while his specimens from near San Francisco and overflowed by the tides would be A. maritima, 

 were not the branches of the panicle in fives ; one of the chief characters given for that species 

 being the solitarj^ or geminate rays. 



2. A. procumbens. Annual, its root-fibres with a copious cottony ])ubescence ; 

 culms sometimes decumbent at base, stout, 2 to 10 inches high, much enlarged 

 below by the crowded withered sheaths, glaucous : leaves flat, or at most folded, 

 those of the culm an inch long or less, about a line Avide, barely tapering to the cari- 

 nate scabrous apex ; ligule long, acute ; sheaths broad, striate, mostly fiat : panicle 

 -i- to 1~J- inches long, its base exceeded by the upper sheath ; rays solitary or in twos 

 or threes, at length spreading, the few spikelets usually distichous ; spikelets 2 - 5- 

 flowered, subsessile : glumes half as long as the lower florets, the lower acute, its 

 lateral nerves not extending half its length ; upper broadly ovate, submucronate, 

 3- or indistinctly 5-nerved : lower palet 2 lines long, broad, obtuse, obscurely erose- 

 toothed, often mucronate, strongly scabrous on the keel, the marginal nerves obscure, 

 slightly pubescent at base ; the strongly ciliate upper palet mostly equalling the 

 lower. — Poa procumbens, Curt. P. rupestris, Witli. Sclerocldoa procumbens, Beau v. 

 Festuca procumbens, Kunth, Enum. i. 393 and Suppl. 328, t. 29, fig. 3. 



Mendocino County {Bolander, n. 6467), collected with Ar/rostis mucronata, Presl, which closely 

 resembles it in general appearance ; western coast of Europe. All the specimens have dense 

 spike-like panicles with a close resemblance to and the soft feeling of some dwarf Alopccurus. 

 When the short secund branches of the panicle are expanded the plant has a widely different 

 appeai-ance, as is shown by specimens from the coast of England, with both conditions in the 

 same specimen. 



3. A. Californica, Munro Ms. Densely tufted perennial, its somewhat rigid 

 culms a foot or more high, and the pale-green foliage minutely scabrous : radi- 

 cal leaves about half as long as the culm, mostly flat, a line or more wide ; culm- 

 leaves short, the uppermost often reduced to a mucro, acute-pointed ; ligule short, 

 truncate : panicle 2 to 3 inches long, contracted, or with the rays (in pairs or threes) 

 spreading ; spikelets 3 - 7-flowered, ovate, flattish, pale green or purplish, mem- 

 branaceous, mostly dicjecious : glumes acute, rough on the back, the upper broader, 

 distinctly 3-nerved for half its length, f the length of its floret, the lower irregularly 

 3-ncrved : lower palet 2 lines long, the intermediate nerves f;iint, all but the central 

 disappearing a third below the broadly scarious irregularly erose apex, the lower 

 half of the middle and marginal nerves usually silky-pubescent ; upper palet | the 

 shorter, broadly 2-nerved, with wide inflexed margins, ciliate on the nerves and 

 narrowly truncate above. — Sclerochloa CnUfornim, Munro in Bentli. PI. Hartw. 

 342. Eragrostis Fendleri, Steud. Syn. Gram. 278. Poa andiua, Nutt. in herb. 

 Gray (not Trin.) ; Watson, Bot. King Exp. 388; Vasey, Bot. Wheeler Exp. 289. 



In various localities near San Francisco {Bolnnder) ; Monterey (Hartwrg) ; and in the moun- 

 tains through the interior to Colorado and New Mexico, and southward into Mexico. In the list 

 of Hartweg's plants this was enumerated as "Sclerochloa Californica, JMunro, sj-). n." As no 

 description was given, several have supposed that the following species was the plant intended to 

 be thus named, and it has been distributed under the name, thus causing much confusion. Besides 

 abundant other differences, the great dissimilarity in the foliage allows the two to be distinguished 



