32 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



Festuca scabrella major Ysisey, Coiitr. Nat. Herb. 1: 278. 1893. Type specimen in 

 the National Herbarium, collected in Spokane County, Washington, by Suksdorf 

 (no. 118), June 18, 1884. This is a much larger plant than the type of Melica hallii, 

 with a larger and looser panicle. Most of the United States material is quite 

 intermediate between the two. 



Fesluca campestris Rydb. Mem. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 1: 57. 1900. Proposes a new 

 name for the above, on account of the older Festuca nutans major Yasey, which latter, 

 however, is a technically unpublished name. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Densely tufted, the broad leaves numerous; culms erect, 2-jointed, smooth or scab- 

 rous, 30 to 90 cm. high; upper sheaths scabrous, closely enveloping the stem, the 

 lower smooth, exceeding the internodes, enlarged and somewhat explanate at base; 

 ligule small; blades hard and strongly involute, pale or glaucous, 10 to 30 or even 50 

 cm. long, pungently acute, usually very scabrous, the basal ones deciduous from the 

 persisting sheaths; panicle narrow and rather close, often subsecund, 3 to 15 cm. long, 

 rays solitary or in pairs, very scabrous, usually ascending or appressed, spikelet- 

 bearing near the end, the longest less than half the panicle, often pulvillate-thickened 

 at base; spikelets oblong 8 to 12 mm. long, 4 to 6-flowered; glumes unequal, smooth, 

 or scabrous near the apex, the lower lanceolate, 1-nerved, 7 to 8 mm. long, the 

 upper ovate-lanceolate, 3-nerved, 8 to 9 mm. long; lemma firm, dull, 5-nerved, 

 keeled near the apex, densely and finely scabrous, 8 to 10 mm. long, acute or rather 

 abruptly mucronate or short-awned; palea about as long as the lemma, notched at 

 the apex, pubescent on the nerves, the inflexed sides more than half as broad as the 

 internerve. 



Festuca hallii ranges from British Columbia to North Dakota, Colorado, and Wash- 

 ington. We would also refer here two specimens from Dawson, Yukon, namely, R. 

 S. Williams, July 13, 1899, and John McClean, no. 84. 



The species as thus delimited includes rather diverse-looking material, but in the 

 light of the specimens at hand we can suggest no better disposition. There are good 

 reasons, indeed, for considering it a mere subspecies of F. altaica. 



21. Festuca aristulata (Torr.) Shearms. 



Bromus kalmii aristulatus Torr. Pac. R. Pep. 4: 157. 1856. Type in the National 

 Herbarium, collected on Mark West Creek, California, April 30, 1854, by Dr. J. M. 

 Bigelow. 



Festuca californica Yasey, Contr. Nat. Herb. 1: 277. 1893. Type in the National 

 Herbarium, collected on hills about Oakland, California, by Bolander (no. 1505) in 

 1862. 



DESCRIPTION. 



A coarse tufted grass with numerous basal leaves; culms erect, stout, 2-jointed, about 

 60 to 120 cm. high, striate, scabrous; sheaths somewhat scabrous, often purplish, the 

 lower long-persisting, the collar and auricles white-pilose; ligule ciliate, very short; 

 blades flat or involute, hard, densely beset with minute scarcely rough granulations, 

 8 to 40 cm. long, acute at the apex, 2 to 5 mm. broad, inclined to be deciduous from 

 the sheaths; panicle ample, usually loose, 10 to 30 cm. long; rays slender, usually 

 elongated, terete or. angled, scabrous, in about 4 whorls of 2 to 3 each, pulvillate- 

 thickened basally; spikelets 8 to 18 mm. long, broadly oblong, compressed, mostly 

 5-flowered; joints of the rachilla cylindric, scabrous, 2 to 3 mm. long; glumes oblong- 

 lanceolate, firm, smooth, except the scabrous midnerve, the lower 1-nerved, about 

 5 to 7 mm. long, the upper 3-nerved, 6 to 8 mm. long; lemma 8 to 10 mm. long, 

 lanceolate, convex, firm, 5-nerved, finely and evenly scabrous, acuminate or short- 



