No. 88. 



DUPONTIA PSILOSANTHA var. FLAVESCENS (Hook. & Arn.) Griseb. 

 in Ledeb. Fl. Ross. iv. 386 (1853) ; D. Fisheri var. flavescens Hook. & Arn. Bot. 

 Beech. 132 (1841). 



Plant perennial, scarcely tufted, from a creeping rootstock. 



Culms erect, simple, terete, smooth, rather robust, 12 to 18 inches tall. 



Leaves of culm 2 or 3; sheaths rather loose, smooth, open above, equaling or 

 exceeding the internodes; blades flat, or involute toward the points, smooth, 2 to 3 

 inches long; ligule thin, membranaceous, truncate-obtuse, erose or lacerate, 1 line long. 



Inflorescence a loose, pyramidal, erect panicle 2 to 4 inches long; rays divergent, 

 horizontal or deflexed, in twos or threes at the 4 or 5 rather distant nodes of the 

 smooth, rigid, common axis, smooth, 2 inches long or less, bearing 3 to 6 pedicellate 

 spikelets mostly near the extremities. 



Spilcelets spindle-shaped, turgid, 3 lines long, 1-flowered, with a narrow, linear 

 rudiment; empty glumes ovate, acute, involute toward the thin, golden apexes, makiug 

 them appear acuminate and attenuate, smooth, purplish below, the first 1-nerved, 2| 

 lines long, the second 3-nerved below and \ line longer; floral glume ovate-lanceolate, 

 acute, smooth, 3-nerved, 2£ lines long; palet broadly lance-oblong, emarginate, nearly 

 smooth on the 2 keels ; grain elliptical ; lodicules 1 or 2, rather prominent, broad and 

 dentate above. 



Plate LXXXVIII; a, spikelet slightly opened; 6, spikelet slightly dissected, 

 showing the linear rudiment at the base of the floret; c, first empty glume; d, second 

 empty glume; e, floral glume;/, palet open; g, pistil and lodicules. 



In the Botany of Beechey's Voyage a 2-flowered form is mentioned, which is not 

 represented in the National Herbarium. Readily distinguished by the golden yellow 

 empty glumes and tbe smooth, acute floral glume. Alaska and perhaps elsewhere in 

 Arctic America. 



