No. 42. 



CALAMAGROSTIS HOWELLII Vasey, Bot. Gaz. vi. 271. 



Plant perennial, densely tufted, with abundant, rather coarse roots. 



Culms erect or somewhat geniculate below, simple, smooth, 10 to 20 inches high. 



Leaves of sterile shoots numerous, with close, smooth sheaths and slender, invo- 

 lute blades nearly equaling or even exceeding the culms. Leaves of the culm 2 or 3; 

 sheaths close, striate, smooth, equaling the internodes; blades ascending, flat or 

 involute, attenuate-pointed, firm, not rigid, slightly hispid above, 5 to 8 inches long, 1 

 line wide; ligule scarious, often purple, nearly acute, 2£ lines long. 



Inflorescence an oblong or pyramidal panicle 2 to 5 inches long, spreading at flower- 

 ing-time and more or less contracted afterward; rays mostly in fives, slender, scabrous. 

 1£ inches long or less, subdivided, and bearing 5 to 10 spikelets beyond the middle. 



Spikelets on pedicels nearly equaling or often exceeding themselves, turgid, acute, 

 2£ to 3 lines long ; empty glumes lanceolate, acuminate, convex, carinate above, smooth ; 

 first glume 1 -nerved, 2£ to 3 lines long; second glume distinctly 3-nerved, slightly 

 shorter; floral glume lance-ovate, thin, nearly smooth, 2£ to 3 lines long, cleft at the 

 apex, each lobe terminating in two slender teeth formed by the excurrent nerves awn 

 attached about J from the base, bent, ^ inch long; hairs of the callus half as long as 

 the glume; hairs and awn of the rudiment equaling the glume; palet oblong, the two 

 nerves excurrent at the obtuse apex, thin, smooth, 2 lines long; grain narrowly oblong, 

 slightly flattened, 1 line long. 



Plate XLII ; a, empty glumes ; b, rudiment and floret with glume and palet 

 spread apart, showing the grain ; c, palet. 



Oregon. A handsome species easily distinguished by the long setaceous leaves, the 

 prominent awns, and the slender teeth of both glumes and palets. It produces abun- 

 dant foliage, and should be tried in cultivation as a pasture or meadow grass. 



