PIPER NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF FESTUCA. 11 



1 . Festuca octoflora Walt. 



Festuca octoflora Walt. Fl. Car. 81. 1788. 



According to Professor A. S. Hitchcock, there is no specimen to represent this species' 

 in the part of Wallers' s herbarium preserved in the British Museum. The brief 

 original description probably refers to the plant generally understood. 



Festuca tenella Willd. Sp. PI. 1: 419. 1797. "Habitat in America boreali." We 

 have not seen the type. " "' M ' ^ 5 r* 



Festuca setacea Povc. Encyl. Suppl. 2: 638. 1811. Described from specimens grown 

 in the Jardin du Val de Grace, France, the original source unknown. We have 

 not seen the type. 



Festuca parviflora Ell. Bot. B. C. & Ga. 1 : 170. 1817. We have examined the type of 

 this in Elliott's herbarium, and are inclined to consider it an immature shade form 

 of octoflora. It is worthy of note, however, that all the specimens which match 

 Elliott's type are from the Southern States. The type is in possession of the College 

 of Charleston. 



Festuca tenella glauca Nutt. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. 5: 147. 1834. Type in the herba- 

 rium of the Philadelphia Academy, collected by Nuttall at Fort Smith, Ark. The 

 plant is scarcely glaucous. 



Festuca gracUenta 'Buck}. Proc. Acad. Phila. 1862: 97. 1863. Type from "northern 

 Texas." It is exactly the same thing as F. jDarviflora Ell. The type specimen is in 

 the herbarium of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences. 



Festuca pusilla Buckl. Proc. Acad. Phila. 1862: 97. 1863. Type from "northern 

 California," preserved in the herbarium of the Philadelphia Academy. It is per- 

 fectly matched by many recent collections from the same region. The awns are 

 about equal in length to the flowering glumes. 



Festuca octoflora aristulata Torr. ; L. H. Dewey, Contr. Nat. Herb. 2: 547. 1894. 

 No type indicated, but the description of ' ' awns equaling or somewhat exceeding 

 the florets ' ' calls for a different plant from the California specimen of Bigelow to 

 which Torrey originally applied the name as a nomen nudum. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Culms slender, erect, sometimes geniculate at base, often tufted, 5 to 40 cm. high, 

 glabrous or retrorsely puberulent, mostly 3-jointed; sheaths glabrous or pubescent, 

 shorter than the internodes; ligule 0.5 to 1 mm. long, scarious, not decurrent; blades 

 narrowly linear, involute or rarely flat, soft, erect or ascending, 2 to 10 cm. long; 

 panicle narrow, erect, often reduced to a raceme or spike, 3 to 12 cm. long, some- 

 times secund; rays mostly solitary, 2 to 4 or sometimes even 8 mm. long, erect, rarely 

 spreading, 3-angled, usually scabrous; spikelets oval or oblong, 5 to 9, or rarely 

 13 mm. long, 5 to 13-flowered; joints of the rachilla olavate, 0.5 to 0.7 mm. long; 

 glumes subulate-lanceolate, the lower 1-nerved, 3 mm. long, the upper 3-nerved, 4 mm. 

 long; lemma firm, convex, lanceolate, from glabrous to very scabrous, obscurely 5- 

 nerved, 4 to 5 mm. long, attenuate into a scabrous straight awn 1 to 7 mm. long; 

 palea lanceolate, acute, equaling the lemma, the nerves scabrous; stamen 1. 



Festuca octoflora ranges throughout the United States, extending northward into 

 British Columbia and Ontario and southward into lower California. We have seen 

 no specimens from Mexico or from Central or South America, though it is reported 

 from Brazil by Doell in Martins' s Flora Brasiliensis as F. tenella AVilld. 



This species is very variable, as might be expected from its wide range, but for the 

 most part the characters are too inconstant for nomenclatorial recognition. In Utah 

 and California occur some puzzling approaches to F. pacifica, but otherwise there is 

 no danger of confusing it with related species. 

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