VOL. XI, NO. 2.—-BOTANICAL GAZETTE.—FEB. 1886. 
Some Arctic Grasses. 
F. LAMSON SCRIBNER. 
(WITH PLATE II.) 
DESCHAMPSIA BREVIFOLIA R. Br. in Parr. 1st Voy. Suppl. 
p- 291. (1823).—The finding of what we believe to be the typi- 
cal form of Robert Brown’s D. brevifolia, by Lieut. A. W. Greely 
in 1882, near Ft. Conger, Grinnell Land, latitude 81° 44’, leads 
us to restore to its specific rank this truly Arctic grass that has 
been classed by many recent authors as only a variety or form 
of D. cespitosa. We do not find it represented in any of the 
numerous Rocky Mountain collections which we have examined, 
and the only approach to it among our Arctic collections is a spe- 
cimen from Schumagin Island, Alaska, collected by M. W. Har- 
rington in 1871-2. The Alaskan plant is about three times the 
size of the one from Grinnell Land, but in other respects there is 
no essential difference. The figure we have made is drawn from 
one of Lieut. Greely’s specimens and shows the habit of the 
plant, natural size, with enlarged illustrations of one of the 
spikelets, 
The following is copied from Brown’s description : 
folio brevioribus, ipsa basi integra; ligula lanceolata; supremum brevissimum, 
terum 
obsoletis, apice eroso multidentato, dorso sepius infra medium aristata; ar 
setacea, recta, denticulata, valvulam ipsam vix vel paulo superanti; superiore 
longitudine inferioris, angustior, dinervis, apice bidentato, quandoque semifido. 
Puippsta aLGIpa R. Br.—Mr. H. N. Patterson, who is well- 
known both as a collector and a com iler of useful and neatly 
printed check-lists of plants, has been spending the season in the 
ocky Mountains, gathering in botanical treasures, and among 
his interesting finds is Phippsia algida, a curious little grass, 
allied to Coleanthus and Sporobolus, that has not before been 
discovered south of Alaska. Mr. Patterson collected it in wet, 
gravelly places about Chicago Lake, Georgetown, Colorado. It 
may not be so rare within our limits as now appears for its low, 
moss-like growth and aquatic habits render it very likely to es- 
