PIPES NOBTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF FE8TU0A. 17 



Kunth himself first referred thia plant to /•'. myuros L. II. B. K $o\ Gen el 

 remarking: "Non video <i u " charactere distinguenda ail a Festuco 

 Linn.'.'" Nevertheless, he later names the plant /•'. muralis, without j»««iiitli 

 wherein it differed. Kunth'a figure in II. B. K. shows ii" character whatever by 

 which his plant can be differentiated from F. myuros. The interesting question al 

 arises as to whether Kunth' a planl ia native or uot. Hi- type came from garden 

 walls in Quito, Ecuador, and might well have been introduced there prior to 1815. 

 The question is Bomewhat complicated by Jameson's no. 232, also collected at Quito 

 in L856, in sandy places and on garden walls. The sheet of this number in the Gray 

 Herbarium is a mixture of myuros and megalura. It i- hardly possible that Kunth'a 

 type can be the latter Bpecies, as he would Burely have n< iticed the bristly cilia, espe- 

 cially as he was trying to differentiate hia plant from /•'. myuros. As both tin- Bpeciea 

 grow at Quito, it will require an examination of Kunth'a type to settle definitely 

 what his F. muralisia, but it ia altogether probable that it ia true F. myuros, and not 

 /•'. megalura. It may further be added that the Jameson specimen and one collected 

 on Mount [ztaccihuatl, Mexico, by Charles Deam (no. 22), are the only American 

 specimens of F. myuros which we would hesitate to consider introduced. 



lit. Festuca meg-alura Xntt. 



Festuca megalura Nutt. Journ. Acad. Phila. n. s. 1: 188. 1 s 4 7 . Type from Santa 

 Barbara, Cal., butwe have been unable to locate it in any American herbarium, nor 

 is it in the British Museum. Nuttallian specimens of this Bpecies, with a different 

 unpubhshed name, are in the Philadelphia Academy and in the British Museum. 

 Nuttall's description i> so good, however, that there can he no doubt regarding the 

 plant. 



Vulpia myuros hirsuta Hack. Cat. Gram. Port. 24. 1880. Type from Portugal. 



Festuca myuros hirsuta Asch. A: Graebn. Syn. Mitteleur. Fl. 2: 558. 1901. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Very similar in all respects to the preceding species; panicles usually longer; lemma 

 sparsely ciliate on its upper half. ( Plate \ . 



This plant is abundant on the Pacific slope from British Columbia and Idaho to 

 Mexico and Lower California. It also recurs in Ecuador, Pern. Bolivia, ami Chile. 

 The evidence points very Btrongly to its being native and not introduced. In 

 Europe it has been found only in Portugal, and that in comparatively recent years, 

 so that it is more likely an introduction there than vice versa. It was collected in 

 British Columbia by Lyall in 1859, in Washington by Doctor Cooper in 1853 and 

 by Tolmie much earlier, in California by Gambell before 1847, in Nevada by Ander- 

 son in 1865, in Ecuador by Jameson in 1856, in Peru by the Wilkes expedition in 

 and in Chile by Gray about 1850. This widespread range along the Pacific 

 slope of both North and South America at such early date-, taken in contrast with 

 its very local distribution in Europe, points to its being a West American native. 

 Nevertheless, in eastern Washington and Idaho it is a plant ot very recent introduc- 

 tion, and in its rapid spread behaves like many weedy plants of undoubted European 

 origin. 



fcfosl of the South American specimens referred to Festuca muralis Kunth belong 

 to /'. megalura, and authentic material from Gay shows that such was the case with 

 the specimens on which the P. muralis of the Flora Chilensis was based. 



The character by which megalura is distinguished from myuros is very slight, but 

 surprisingly constant. It has been mistaken by some recent California collectors for 

 the European Festuca ciliata Danth. ■ F. myuros cxliata Cosson). 



