No. 45. 

 DESCHAMPSIA C^ESPITOSA Beauv. var. ARCTIC A Vasey. 



Plant perennial, densely csespitose. 



Culms erect, stout, smooth, 10 to 15 inches high. 



Leaves of sterile shoots numerous, with rather loose, thin, overlapping sheaths 

 and flat or folded, erect blades 4 to 6 inches long. Leaves of the culm usually but one 

 above the base; sheath rather loose, striate, smooth, 4 to 5 inches long; blade flat or 

 folded, slightly scabrid above, 1 to 3 inches long; ligule thin, attenuate-pointed, 2 to 4 

 inches long. 



Inflorescence a loose, pyramidal or oblong panicle 4 to 5 inches long; rays mostly 

 in threes or twos at the 6 or 7 nodes of the slightly flexuous, smooth, common axis, 

 scabrous, 2 inches or less long, subdivided and spikelet-bearing beyond the middle. 



SpiJcelets on pedicels about equaling themselves, slightly compressed, 2- to 3-flow- 

 ered, 3 to 3^ lines long; empty glumes lance-ovate, minutely bidentate at the apex, 

 thin, scarious-margined, smooth, purple turning brownish; first glume 1-nerved, 2£ 

 lines long; second glume wider, slightly longer, 3-nerved; floral glume oblong, erosely 

 4-toothed at the truncate apex, thin, obscurely 4-nerved, 2 to 2£ lines long; awn at- 

 tached near the base, straight, about 2 lines long; hairs of the callus ^ as long as the 

 glume; intrenodes of the rachilla hairy, 1 line long, extended beyond the base of the 

 palet oblong, 2-lobed at the apex, thin, 2-nerved, 2 lines long; stamens 3 with short 

 upper floret; filaments. 



Plate XLV; a, empty glumes; b, florets slightly opened. 

 Coast of Alaska and adjacent islands. 



