PIPEE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIE8 OF FESTUCA, 11 



1. Festuca octoflora Walt. 



Festuca octoflora Walt. Fl. Car. 81. L788. 



According to Professor A. S. Hitchcock,* there is no specimen to represent this species 

 in the part of Walters' s herbarium preserved in the British Museum. The brief 

 original description probably referstothe plant generally understood. 



Festuca tenella Willd. Sp. PI. 1: 419. L797. "Habital in America boreali." We 

 have not Been the type. 



Festuca setacea Poir. Encyl. Suppl. 2: 638. L811. Described n specimens grown 



in the Jardin du Val de Grace, France, the original Bource unknown. We have 

 not seen t he type. 



Festuca parviflora Ell. Bot.S.C. & Ga. 1: L70. L817. We have examined the type of 

 this in Elliott's herbarium, and are inclined to consider it an immature shade form 

 of octoflora. It is worthy of note, however, that all the specimens which match 

 Elliott's type are from the Southern states. The type is in possession oi theCollege 

 >>\ ( iharleston. 



Festuca tenella <il<tti<-<< Nutt. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. 5: 147. L834. Type in the herba- 

 riuin of the Philadelphia Academy, collected l>y Xnttall at Fort Smith. Ark. The 

 plant is scarcely glaucous. 



Festuca gracUenta Buckl. Proc. Acad. Phila. 1862: 97. 1st;:;. Type from "northern 

 Texas." It is exactly the same thing as /•'. parviflora Ell. The type specimen i- in 

 the herbarium of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences. 



Festuca pusilla Buckl. Proc. Acad. Phila. 1862: 97. 1863. Type from •'northern 

 California," preserved in tin- herbarium of the Philadelphia Academy. It i- per- 

 fectly matched by many recent collections from the same region. The awns are 

 about equal in length to the flowering glumes. 



Festuca octoflora aristulata Torr. ; I.. II. Dewey, Contr. Nat. Herb. 2: 7)47. L894. 

 No type indicated, but the description of "awns equaling or somewhat exceeding 

 the florets" calls for a different plant from the California specimen of Bigelow to 

 which Torrey originally applied the name as a nomen nudum. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Culms slender, erect, sometimes geniculate at base, often tufted. •"> to 40 cm. high, 

 glabrous or retrorsely puberulent, mostly 3- jointed; sheaths glabrous or pubescent, 

 Bhorter than the internodes; ligule 0.5 to l mm. long, scarious, not decurrent; blades 

 narrowly linear, involute or rarely Hat, soft, erect or ascending, '2 to K> cm. long; 

 panicle narrow, erect, often reduced to a raceme or spike, •'! to 12 cm. Long, some- 

 times seen nd; rays mostly solitary, 2 tot or sometimes even s mm. Ion-, erect, rarely 

 spreading, 3-angled, usually scabrous; spikelets oval or oblong, 5 to 9, or rarely 

 L3 mm. long, 5 to L3-flowered; joints of the rachilla clavate, 0.5 to 0.7 mm. Long; 

 glumes subulate-lanceolate, the lower L-nerved, •".mm. Ion-, the upper 3-nerved, 4 mm. 

 long; Lemma linn, convex, lanceolate, from glabrous to very Bcabrous, obscurely 5- 

 nerved, 4 to 5 mm. Long, attenuate into a scabrous straight awn 1 to 7 mm. Long; 

 palea ianceolate, acute, equaling the lemma, the nerves scabrous; stamen 1 



Festuca octoflora ranges throughout the United States, extending northward into 

 British Columbia and Ontario and BOUthward into lower California. We have Been 

 no specimens from Mexico or from Central or South America, though it i> reported 



from Brazil by Doell in Martius's Flora Brasiliensis as /•'. t,n>//<i Willd. 



Tie species is very variable, as might he expected from its wide range, but for the 

 most part the characters are too inconstant for nomenclatorial recognition. In Utah 

 and California occur some puzzling approaches to /■'. paciflca, but otherwise there is 

 no danger of confusing it with related species. 



