PIPER NORTH AMERICA]^ SPECIES OF FESTUCA. 81 



DESCRIPTIOX. 



Densely tufted, with coarse matted roots; culms erect or geniculate at base, 

 3-jointed, 60 to 70 cm. high; sheaths smooth, mostly shorter than the internodes; 

 ligule very short; blades loosely involute, shining, narrowly linear, scabrid above, 

 8 to 15 cm, long, about 4 mm. wide, acute at apex; panicle loose and open, 8 to 10 

 cm. long; lower rays in pairs, the upper solitary, each pulvillus-bearing at base, 

 subterete, scaberulous, naked below; spikelets oblong, 8 to 12 mm. long, 4 or 5-flow- 

 ered, purple- tinged; joints of the rachilla cylindric, scaberulous, 1 mm. long; glumes 

 lanceolate, glabrous or nearly so. the lower 1-nerved, 2 to 3 mm. long, the upper 

 3-nerved, about 4 mm. long; lemma membranaceous, linear-lanceolate, strongly 

 5-nerved, appressed-hispidulous, 6 mm. long,, attenuate into a straight scabrous awn 

 about 2 mm^ long; palea obtuse, about equaling the lemma, somewhat scabrous. 

 Plate IX. 



Explanation of Plate. — Drawn from duplicate type from 248 Howell, collected in Deer Creek 

 Mountains, Oregon. Plant one-half natural size; details magnified five times.' 



19. Festuca altaica Trin. 



Festuca altaica Trin. in Ledeb. Fl. Alt. 1 : 109. 1829. "In summa alpe ad fontemfl. 



Acjulac rarissimaJ' 



' Festuca scabrella Torr. ; Hook. Fl. Bor. Am. 2: '252. 1840. Type probably at the 

 British Museum, collected in the Rocky ^Mountains by Drummond. Duplicates of 

 the same .are Jnjthe Torrey Herbarium and in the Gray Herbarium. 



The Drummond specimens are most nearly matched in recent collections by plants 

 collected on Mount Albert, Gasp^, by Allen in 1881 and 1882. No recent collection 

 seems to have been made near the type locality. Hooker's figure shows a panicle 

 with ascending rays, but the Gray Herbarium specimens show spreading rays as in 

 most northern material. The nearly smooth and loosely involute leaves are likewise 

 characters which ally the plant to altaica proper, rather than to the more scabrous 

 plant of the United States, which, however, it resembles in its rather dull spikelets. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Densely tufted, with numerous basal leaves; culms erect, smooth or nearly so, 2- 

 jointed, 30 to 90 cm. high; sheaths striate, smooth or the uppermost scabrous; ligule 

 very short; blades mostly involute, smooth or scabrous beneath, especially toward 

 the apex, hispidulous above[ panicle ample, loose and open, erect, 10 to 20 cm. long; 

 rays mostly in pairs in about 6 verticels, slender, flexuous, naked below the mid- 

 dle, branched above, pulvillate-thickened at base; spikelets broadly oblong, 3 to 

 5-flowered, 12 to 15 mm. long, yellowish-green, or more commonly coppery or pur- 

 ple; florets close, nearly parallel id the rachilla; joints of the rachilla cylindric- or 

 slightly clavate, scabrous, 2 to 3 mm. long; glumes smooth, or scabrous near the 

 apex, the lower oblong-lanceolate, obtusish, 1-nerved, 6 to 7 mm. long, the upper 

 ovate-lanceolate, acute, 3-nerved, 8 to 9 mm. long; lemma lanceolate-ovate, attenuate- 

 acute, 5-nerved, finely and densely scabrous, somewhat shiny, 10 to 12 mm. long, 

 firm-membranaceous; palea oblong-lanceolate, notched at apex, the inflexed sides 

 more than half as broad as the internerve, the nerves hispidulous. 



The species ranges through Siberia, and in North America occurs in Alaska, Yukon, 

 and on Mount Albert, Quebec. 



20. Festuca hallii (A^asey). - % /XOi^i ' 



Melica hallii Vasey, Bot. Gaz. 6: 296. 1881. Type specimens in the National Her- 

 barium, collected in the Rocky Mountains, latitude 39° to 41°, by Hall d' Harbour 

 (no. 621), in 1862. These specimens have a narrow strict panicle, and are evidently 

 from high altitudes. 



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