58 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [JULY 
rachis 3—-4™" in length, much flattened, with or without a 
cinereous pubescence on its edges ; spikelets usually 2 at each 
joint, though frequently one of them is entirely sterile, 3-4™ 
long including the awns, 1—3-flowered; glumes 5-7, generally 
entire, 7°" long, 1-3 striate, smooth or finely pubescent, gradu- 
ally tapering into a slender scabrous awn 3° long which is 
strongly recurved in age; lower palet nerveless except toward 
the apex, 7-I10™™" long, coriaceous, smooth or puberulent, finely 
scabrous on the nerves above the middle, extending into an awn 
2-3°™ long; upper palet 8™ long, the two nerves smooth or 
slightly scabrous toward the bidentate apex; stamens 3, anthers 
2™™ long; styles 2, from the apex of the ciliate callous cap of 
ovary; caryopsis short, stipitate at the base, smooth, plump, 
with a groove on the side of the upper palet. 
This species was collected in the valley north of Ellensburg, Kittitas 
county, Washington, by Kirk Whited, June, 1898. It is distinguished from 
S. glabrum Sm. by its more cespitose habit, and usually by its slender rigidly 
involute leaves, whose sheaths are overlapping. Type specimen (number 
670) is in Mr. Whited’s herbarium. 
Sitanion ciliatum, n. sp—A tufted annual or biennial from 
strong rigid roots usually covered with a woolly matrix. Culm 
1-2°" high, striate and cinereous pubescent just below the 
inflorescence, strictly erect, clothed at the base with marcescent 
sheaths. Leaves numerous from sterile shoots, convolute to invo- 
lute, averaging 7°" in length, pungently pointed, upper surface 
glaucous and finely scabrous on the striae, lower surface covered 
with a close cinereous and usually with a longer ciliate pubes- 
cence; cauline leaves flat and broader; sheaths at least equaling 
the internodes, open at the throat, the lower ones cinereous and 
ciliate pubescent, the uppermost one cinereous pubescent and 
loosely including the culms; ligules very narrow, on the sides 
often developed into callous protuberances, decurrent down the 
sheath margin as a hyaline membrane. Spike 7° long, densely 
virgate, purplish brown at maturity, readily breaking up at the 
joints; 2 spikelets at each joint, one of which is frequently 
sterile, 3-4™ long including the awns, 1-3-flowered; rachis 
joints 3-4™ long, compressed, smooth or with sparse cilia along 
