NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF FESTUCA. 



Bv Charles V. Piper. 



INTRODUCTION. 



This treatment of the North American species of Festuca is based 

 primaril}^ on the material in the National Herbarium, but through the 

 courtesy of those having" the collections in charge, we have been able 

 to examine the material in the Gra}^ Herbarium, the New York Botan- 

 ical Garden, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the 

 California Academy of Sciences, the Michigan Agricultural College, 

 and the Geological and Natural History Survey of Canada. To all of 

 these grateful acknowledgment is made. 



We have taken especial care to point out clearly the material basis 

 for our interpretations of the various species that have been proposed. 

 In the cases of Festuca ovina and Festuca rubra reliance is placed 

 mainly on the classic work of Hackel in his Monographia Festucarum 

 Europaearum, aided by a fine series of authentic specimens distributed 

 by him. It is worthy of note that of the 30 native species of the 

 genus in North America, here recognized, 3 have been collected but 

 once, 2 others but twice, and a sixth species, F. rigescens^ has been 

 found but once north of South America./ We have cited specimens 

 only for special reasons, and have usually included only specimens of 

 historic interest, or from numbered sets generally distributed. 



HISTORY OF THE GENUS. 



The name Festuca first appears in botanical literature, according to 

 Trinius, in Dodoens's work entitled " Stirpium historiae pemptades sex, 

 sive libri XXX Antwerpiae, ex officina Christophori Plantini,'' pub- 

 lished in 1583. Dodoens's plant ^'Festuca altera^'' is, according to 

 Trinius, Bronius secalinits L. Later pre-Linnsean authors used the 

 name in various ways, mostly, however, for species of Bromus. 



In the first edition of the Genera Plantarum, 1737, Linnaius cites 

 two plates, namel}^, Dillenius, Catalogus Plantarum, plate 3, which is 

 evidently some species of Bromus, and Scheuchzer, plate 5, figures 



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