August 21, 1889. | 



Garden and Forest. 



401 



Thorn of the dry interior region west of the Rocky IN'Ioun- 

 tains, which is a stout branching shrub rather than a tree. 

 Cra/cegus Doiig/asii, var. rivularis. * C. S. Sargent. 



New or Little Known Plants. 



Uniola Palineri.f 



IN 1885 Dr. Edward Pahner collected, near the mouth 

 of the Colorado Rivef, some specimens of a grass 

 from which he said the Cocopa Indians obtained the 

 seeds in large quantities and used them as food. At 

 the time he was there the grass was out of flower ; he 

 found only a few disconnected spikelets, and the botani- 

 cal characters could not w'ell be determined. In April of 

 the present year Dr. Palmer, being employed by the De- 

 partment of Agriculture to make botanical investigations. 



that genus. Its general appearance and habit is that. of 

 Distichlis, from which it differs in having four of the lower 

 glumes (instead of two only) in each spikelet empty, i. e., 

 without palet or flower, and in the disarticulation of the 

 rhachis between the spikelets of both sexes — that is, the 

 spikelets break apart between the several flowers when 

 mature. This disarticulation occurs also to some extent 

 in the fertile spikes of Distichlis, but not in the male or 

 infertile ones. On the other hand it differs from Uniola in 

 its dioecious character, and here agrees with Distichlis. 

 It seems, in fact, to connect these two general, but so long 

 as the two are kept distinct it must stand as Uniola. Spe- 

 cifically it is new, and I have given it the name of U. 

 Pal men'. 



The following notes I collect from Dr. Palmer's letter : 

 The specimens were collected at the Horseshoe Bend of 



Y\%. J23. .^Acacia flexicaulis. — See pajje 400. 



made another visit to the locality and obtained in that re- 

 gion specimens in good condition, enabling me to locate 

 the plant botanically. As the genus Uniola is defined by 

 Bentham & Hooker, our erass must be considered as of 



*Crat.|EGUS Douglasii, vai". rivularis, trutex glaber, 10-15 pedalis, foliis ovatis. 

 lanceolatis, obtusis vel acutis, argjute serratis, inciso-serralisve, stipulis acutis 

 inciso-glandulosis. 



t'UNiOLA Palmeri, Vasey. — Culms wiry and rigid, sometimes cane- like, two to 

 four feet liigh, from subterranean root-stocks, often much branched, and manv 

 culms from one root, leafy to the top. Leaves distichous (sometimes less than an 

 inch apart, sometimes two to four inches apart), smooth, rigid, erect, involute, 

 with long, pungent apex, the lower two to four inches, the upper four to eight 

 inches long and exceeding the panicle. Ligule nearly obsolete, with a light woolly 

 tuft at the angles. Raceme of the staminate plants six to nine inches long, narrow, 

 the branches mostly in twos and threes, the lower ones one to three inclies long, 

 erect, compound below ; spikelets eight to ten lines long and about two lines 

 wide, 7-9 flowered. Racemes of the fertile plant shorter, thicker and more con- 

 densed, being four to six inches long, and the branches sessile or short-stalked ; 

 spikelets usually one to one and a half inches long, 7-9 flowered, the two lower pairs 

 of glumes empty ; outer pair of empty glumes five to six lines long, the flowering 

 glumes six to seven lines long, lanceolate and acuminate, with a stiff, pungent point, 

 smooth, obscurely many- (about 20-) nerved ; palet one-fourtli shorter than its 

 glume, with about three nerves on each side of tlie strong, deep keel ; grain linear- 

 oblong, three lines long, not including the thickened, more or less united style. 



the Colorado River, thirty-five miles south of Lerdo by the 

 river, and twelve to fifteen miles from its mouth. This is 

 the most extensive locality of the grass, thence extending 

 down to the mouth of the river. It covers a space of 

 from one to twenty miles wide, and occurs on both 

 sides of the river. It is estimated that there are from forty 

 to fifty thousand acres covered with this grass. It grows 

 from two to four feet high, from strong, deep root-stocks, 

 frequently many culms from the same root. The stems 

 are covered to the top with the sharp, stiff leaves. 

 The sterile plant grows more or less mixed with the other, 

 but at times in masses entirely by itself. Dr. Palmer 

 noticed several forms. One of these is more slender, 

 with the leaves shorter, more numerous and more finely 

 pointed. This, he says, grows on land that has but little 

 overflow. Where, by changes in the river, any patches are 

 left above tide-water, they soon die. 



The Indians come together here at the proper season. 



