PIPER NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF FESTUCA. 39 



32. Festuca fratercula Rupr. ,i /-//'|^T. /*/ 



^^^^Festuca fratercida Rupr.; Foum. Mex. PI. 2-^:24: 1881. « Type collected on Mount 

 M^FJzafea,- Mexico, at 3,500 to 3,580 meters altitude, by Galeotti. 



DESCRIPTION. 



A loosely tufted, glabrous perennial, 60 to 90 cm. high; stem erect, slender, very 

 smooth and shining, with 3 nodes; offshoots few, extravaginal, rather short; sheaths 

 smooth, much shorter than the internodes; ligule very short, truncate; blades thin, 

 flat, spreading, linear, 10 to 25 cm. long, 3 to 6 mm. wide, quite smooth, scabrous on 

 the margins, attenuate-acuminate to the convolute apex; panicle slender 10 to 15 

 cm. long, flexuous and somewhat nodding; rays mostly solitary, some in pairs, 

 very slender, scabrous on the angles, usually branched below the middle, the longest 

 10 cm. long, ascending, flower-bearing in the upper third; spikelets oblong, 3 to 

 5-flowered, 7 to 12 mm. long; glumes membranous, green, the lower 1-nerved, ovate- 

 lanceolate, acute, 1.5 to 2 mm. long, scarious-margined, scabrous on the keel; the 

 upper oblong, 3-nerved, subacute, scarious-margined, scabrous on the keel; lemma 

 6 to 9 mm. long, 3-nerved, or with 2 additional faint intermediate nerves, lanceolate, 

 keeled to the base, scabrous, and bearing at apex an awn 0.5 to 2 mm. long; palea 

 linear-lanceolate, acute, scabrous on the nerves, 6 to 6.5 mm. long, the inflexed 

 sides one-third as broad as the internerve; apex of ovary obtuse or emarginate and 

 slightly hairy, the stigmas rather distant; lodicules oblique, entire or laciniate, as 

 long as the ovary or shorter. 



The following specimens are somewhat doubtfully referred to this species: 



Arizona: ^ • (^o^m^ 



Rincon Mountains, Nealley 177. ] - rf /(l.yi^-'''^'''''^^'''^^^^''^^^ 



Colorado: 



Pagosa Peak, Bciker 178, 177, 36, 75, 94. 



Durango, Tweedy 393a. 



33. Festuca subulata Trin. 



Festuca subulata Trin. in Bong. Mem. Acad. St. Petersb. YI. 2: 173, 1832. Type 

 from the neighborhood of Sitka, collected by Mertens. Presumably it is in the St. 

 Petersburg Academy of Science. We have seen no authentic specimen, but the 

 ample description accords so well with plants from near the type locality that there 

 is scarcely room to question the identity of the species. 



Festuca jonesHYasey , Contr. Nat. Herb. 1: 278. 1893. Type in the National Herba- 

 rium, collected by M. E. Jones "in southern Utah," but Mr. Jones notes that the 

 locality is really in the "Wasatch Mts., City Creek Canyon, above Salt Lake City." 



We can find no characters by which F. jonesii can be kept distinct from F. subulata, 

 even as a subspecies. The two type specimens are from almost the extremes of the 

 range of the species. Contrasted with the Alaska specimens, the type of F. jonesii 

 has slightly narrower leaves, and somewhat smaller spikelets, with its florets closer 

 together, and the joints of the rachilla less scabrous. All manner of intergrades 

 occur, however, and in such numbers that no satisfactory line of separation can be 

 drawn. 



DESCRIPTION. 



stems erect, obscurely striate, retrorsely scaberulous, 40 to 120 cm. high, 2 to 4- 

 jointed; sheaths striate, nearly smooth, elongate but shorter than the internodes; 

 ligule scarious, about 1 mm. long; blades dark green above, paler beneath, flat, thin, 

 10 to 30 cm. long, 3 to 10 mm. broad, auriculate at base, usually sharply scabrous on 

 both faces, many-nerved, lax and spreading; panicle very loose and somewhat droop- 

 ing, 15 to 40 cm. long; rays in 3 to 5 sets, mostly in twos, all pulvillate at base, 



a The original description is given on p. 46. 



