20 CONTBIBUTIONS FEOM THE NATIONAL HERBAEIUM. 



upper 3-nerved, 3.5 mm. long; lemma linear-lanceolate, faintly 5-nerved, 3 to 3.5 

 mm. long, sparsely short-pubescent, attenuate into a slender awn 6 to II mm. 

 long; palea lanceolate, obtuse or acutish, nearly as long as the lemma, ciliate at 

 the apex; stamen 1. (Plate VII.) 



This species ranges from Norfolk County, Virginia (Kearney), south to Florida, 

 thence westward to Texas and northward into Arkansas and Indian Territory 



(Palmer). 



Explanation of Plate. — Drawn from Reverchon's Texas specimen collected in 1882. Plant one- 

 half natural size; details enlarged five times. 



Subgenus II. Eufestuca Griseb. 



Eufestuca Griseb. Spic. Fl. Rumel. 2: 432. 1844. 



Perennials, often densely tufted; stamens and stigmas projecting during anthesia; 

 stigmas plum.ose, the branches toothed, bilateral. 



13. Festuca rubra L. 



Festuca rubra L. Sp. PI. 1: 74. 1753. "Habitat in Europae pratis siccis." 

 Festuca vallieola Rydb. Mem. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 1: 57. 1900. Type in the Her- 

 barium of the New York Botanical Garden; a duplicate in the National Herbarium, 

 collected at Silver Bow, Montana, by Eydberg (no. 2108). 



DESCRIPTION. 



Stems from elongated or sometimes short creeping rootstocks, in the latter case 

 somewhat tufted; culms erect, very smooth, 40 to 90 cm. high, 3 or 4-jointed; sheaths 

 very smooth, shorter than the internodes; ligule scarious, short and truncate; blades 

 very smooth, soft, the basal ones loosely involute, those of the culm typically flat, 

 but in American forms usually folded or involute; panicle 5 to 20 cm. long, usually 

 contracted and narrow; rays mostly erect, narrow, scabrous on the angles, the lower 

 ones usually with a short basal branch; spikelets usually 4 to 6-flowered, rarely 10- 

 flowered, mostly 7 to 8 mm. long, pale green or more or less glaucous, often purple- 

 tinged; joints of the rachilla smooth; glumes smooth, the lower 1-nerved, shorter 

 than the 3-nerved upper one; lemma linear-lanceolate, convex, obscurely 5-nerved, 

 5 to 7 mm. long, smooth or scabrous toward the apex, bearing a scabrous awn rarely 

 as long, usually about half as long. 



Festuca rubra is much less rich in subspecies than is F. ovina, and these subspecies 

 are for the most part but ill defined. It necessarily results, therefore, that under 

 the species proper must be grouped plants of somewhat diverse aspect. Indeed, it 

 may be a more philosophical treatment to reduce most of the subspecies to the spe- 

 cies, instead of keeping them up as is done by most European botanists. The prob- 

 lem is complicated by the fact that much of the North American rubra differs from 

 the typical plant of Europe, more especially in the fact that the culm leaves tend to 

 be involute rather than flat, in this respect approaching F. rubra trichophylla. (Ducros) 

 Gaud. This slight difference is surely not sufficient, however, to justify the erection 

 of a new species for the Rocky Mountain form as proposed by Doctor Rydberg, even 

 were the character constant, which is not the case. 



Festuca rubra ranges in North America along the Atlantic seaboard from Greenland 

 to Virginia; on the Pacific side it is abundant along the seashore from Alaska to 

 California, and inland to the Rocky Mountains south as far as Colorado. 



The specimens referred to as F. ovina trachyphylla Hack., F. ovina duriuscula (L. ) 

 Hack., F. ovina borderii Hack., F. amethystina L., and F. rubra trichophylla Gaud, by 

 Doctor Beal in Grasses of North America, clearly are Festuca rubra. Of the speci- 

 mens referred to F. rubra fallax Hack., the Anderson specimen is F. ovina ingrata 

 Hack. ; the Howell specimen, F, rubra. 



