No. 72. 

 POA ARGENTEA Howell, Bull. Torr. Club, xv. 11 (1888). 



Plant perennial, cespitose, having numerous sterile shoots and a stoloniferous 

 rootstock. 



Culms erect, or slightly decumbent at the base, smooth, naked above, 6 to 10 inches 

 tall. 



Leaves of sterile shoots with loose, scarious sheaths and narrow, loosely involute, 

 erect blades 3 to 4 inches long : leaves of the culm 2 or 3 ; sheaths striate, smooth, 

 loose, open at the throat, exceeding the short lower internodes; blades flat or folded, 

 blunt-pointed, 1 inch long or less ; ligule 1 to 2 lines long, decurrent. 



Inflorescence a rather closely flowered, oblong panicle 1 to 2 inches long ; rays 

 solitary or in twos at the 5 or 6 nodes, erect or slightly spreading, unequal, § inch 

 long or less, spikelet-bearing near the extremities. 



SpiTcelets lance-oblong, 3 to 3 J lines long, 2- or 3 flowered with a rudiment; empty 

 glumes oblong, obtuse, thin, smooth, the first 1-nerved, about 2 lines long, the second 

 3-nerved at the base and slightly longer than the first, but neither equaling the lower 

 florets; floral glume oblong, erosely dentate at the thin, membranaceous, truncate 

 apex, smooth, 5-nerved, 2 to 2£ lines long; palet oblong, emarginate, nearly as long 

 as the glume; stamens 3, slightly exserted; internode of rachilla smooth, less than £ 

 line long. 



Plate LXXII; a, spikelet; b, floret with glume and palet spread. 



Oregon, growing in dense tufts, in shaded but rather dry places in the mountains, 

 at an altitude of 5,000 or 6,000 feet. The membranaceous glumes give the panicle a 

 silvery appearance. 



