86 COT^TKIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



slender, scabrous on the angles, flexuous, ascending, sparingly branched, spikelet- 

 bearing above the middle, scarcely pulvillate at base; spikelets green, 2 or 3-flowered, 



5 to 7 mm. long; joints of the rachilla short, smooth; glumes firm, scabrous all over, 

 the lower 1-nerved, 4 to 5 mm. long, the upper 3-nerved, 5 to 6 mm. long; lemma 

 lanceolate-oblong, acute or apparently acuminate, 5-nerved, coriaceous, smooth 

 except the scabrid apex, about 5 mm. long; palea nearly equaling the lemma, firm, 

 acute. (Plate XII.) 



Explanation of Plate. — Drawn from type specimen. Plant one-half natural size: details 

 enlarged tive diameters: 



28. Festuca subuliflora Scribner. 



Fesiuca subuliflora Scribner in Macoun, Cat. Can. PI. 5 : 396. 1890. Type collected 

 at Coldstream, Vancouver Island, by Macoun (no. 7). It was in the* herbarium 

 of Professor Scribner, since destroyed. A duplicate in the herbarium of the Geolog- 

 ical and j'Tatural History Survey of Canada has been examined. 



Festuca ambigua Vasey, Contr. Nat. Herb. 1: 277. 1893. Type in the National 

 Herbarium, collected by Thos. tlowell in Oregon in 1881. 



Festuca denticulata Beal, -Grasses N. Am. 2: 589. 1896. Changes name of above on 

 account of the earlier Festuca ambigua Le Gall.« 



DESCEIPTION. 



Culms erect, rather slender, striate, glabrous, 60 to 90 cm. high, 3 or 4-jointed; 

 basal leaves few, those of the culms 3 or 4; sheaths shorter than the internodes, 

 striate, sparsely hispidulous; ligule very short, ciliate; blades green, rather soft, 

 flat or loosely involute, glabrous beneath, hirsutulous above, 10 to 20 cm. long, 3 to 



6 mm. broad, acute at the apex; panicle very loose, flexuous, somewhat drooping, 

 10 to 20 cm. long; rays slender, solitary or rarely in twos, scabrous on the angles, 

 pulvillate at base, the longest about half as long as the panicle, naked below the 

 middle; spikelets pale green or purplish, loosely 3 or 4-flowered, 8 to 12 mm. long; 

 joints of the rachilla hirsute; glumes subulate, glabrous, each 1-nerved, the lower 

 about 3 mm., the upper 4 mm. long; lemma lanceolate, 5-nerved, scabrous toward 

 the apex, keeled half way or more, 6 to 8 mm. long, tipped with a more or less 

 flexuous awn 10 to 15 mm. long, abruptly narrowed at base into a hispid tubular 

 structure encircling the rachilla, which apparently disarticulates halfway between 

 the florets; palea lanceolate, as long as the lemma, the scabrous nerves uniting in the 

 acuminate apex, the inflexed sides one-third as broad as the internerve. (Plate 

 XIII.) 



A very remarkable species, possessing a form of lemma peculiar to itself. The 

 stipitate base of the lemma might better be considered a downward elongation of the 

 callus, surrounding and becoming grown to the rachilla, which has likewise become 

 elongated so that the joint is still at the base of the callus. This conception makes 

 more apparent the relation of the plant to F. subulata. 

 The following specimens belong to this much-confused species: 

 Vancouver Island: 



Without locality, Fletcher, June 16, 1885. 

 Washington: 



San Juan County, Henderson 2197. 

 Seattle, Piper in 1889. 

 Montesano, Heller 3998. 

 Olympia, Henderson 2179. 

 Oregon : 



Astoria, Piper 6455. 



Portland, Sheldon 10479. 



Without locality, Howell, June, 1886. 



«F1. Morbihan 731. 1852. 



