8 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



DESCRIPTIVE TERMINOLOGY. 



We have taken the liberty to introduce the word lemma^ to apply to 

 the "lower palet" or ''outer palet" or "flowering glume" of authors, 

 restricting the word "glume" to the " empty glumes." This is done 

 purely for a practical reason, namely, to avoid the constant use of 

 phrases for the members of the grass spikelet most used in technical 

 descriptions. 



The only other attempt to apply a single- word term to the "flowering 

 glume" we have noticed is the word "floriglume," proposed by Prof. 

 George Macloskie in volume 8 of the Report of the Princeton Univer- 

 sity Expedition to Patagonia. This term seems to us objectionable, 

 because it is likely to lead to confusion with the word "glume," as 

 applied to both empty glumes. The so-called third empty glume of 

 some grasses is really a sterile lemma. 



The use of a single distinctive name for each part of the grass spike- 

 let seems much preferable to the employment of such general terms 

 as bracts, bractlets, and scales. 



SYNOPSIS OF UNITED STATES AND CANADIAN SPECIES. 



FESTUCA L. 



Fe^tuca^. Sp. PL 1: 73. 1753. 



Spikelets 2 to many-flowered, variously paniculate or sometimes racemose; rachilla 

 articulate at the joints and above the glumes; florets all perfect, or the uppermost 

 staminate; glumes 2, persisting, carinate, unequal or subequal, the lowest 1-nerved 

 (rarely 3-nerved), the upper larger and 3-nerved (rarely 5-nerved); lemma lanceo- 

 late, usually narrow, commonly aristate, always 5-nerved, convex or subcarinate, 

 firm in texture at least near the base, the apex and margins sometimes scarious, the 

 callose base smooth or nearly so; palea bicarinate, oblong or lanceolate, obtuse, acute, 

 acuminate, or bidentate at apex, usually about equaling the lemma; lodicules 2, about 

 as long as the ovary, sometimes entire, usually bifid; stamens 3 in the perennial spe- 

 cies, in the annuals often reduced to 1; ovary obovate, smooth or hispidulous at apex; 

 styles very short, distinctly apical; stigmas plumose, the branches toothed; cary op- 

 sis linear or oblong, glabrous, convex dorsally , sulcate or rarely plane ventrally, often 

 adhering to the palea; hilum linear. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



Subgenus Vulpia. Annuals; stamens usually 1, sometimes 3, rarely becoming 

 extruded; stigma plumose, the branches toothed, bilateral. 



Spikelets densely 5 to 13-flowered; lemma without scarious margin. 1. octofiora. 

 Spikelets loosely 1 to 5, rarely 6-flowered; lemma with narrow 

 scarious margin. 

 Branches of the short panicle normally divergent, a pul villus 

 at the base of at least one of them. 

 Florets mostly 3 to 5 in each spikelet, only the principal 

 panicle branches divergent. 



O'Xs/j./xa (Xsju/j.aT-) , husk, scale. 



