NORTH AMERICAN SPECIKS »>F KKSTK'A. 



I'.v < ii mm i> V. Piper. 



INTRODUCTION. 



This treatment of the North American species of Festuca is based 

 primarily on the material in the National Herbarium, but through the 

 courtesy of those having the collections in charge, we have been aide 

 to examine the material in the Gray Herbarium, the New York Botan- 

 ical Garden, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the 

 California Academy of Sciences, the Michigan Agricultural College, 

 and the Geological and Natural History Survey of Canada. To all of 

 these grateful acknowledgment is made. 



We have taken especial care to point out clearly the material basis 

 for our interpretations of the various species that have been proposed. 

 In the cases <>f Festuca ovina and Festuca rubra reliance is placed 

 mainly on the classic work of Hackel in hi- Monographia Pestucarum 

 Kuropaearum. aided byafine -eric- of authentic specimens distributed 

 by him. It is worthy of note that of the 30 native species ^t' the 

 genus in North America, here recognized, •"» have been collected hut 

 once, -i other- hut twice, and a sixth species, F. rigescens, has been 

 found hut once north of South America. We have cited specimens 

 only for special reasons, and have usually included only specimens of 

 historic interest, or from numbered sets generally distributed. 



HISTORY OF THE GENUS. 



The name Festuca first appears in botanical literature, according to 

 Trinius, in Dodoens'swork entitled "Stirpium historiae pemptades sex, 

 sive libri XXX Antwerpiae, ex officina Christophori Plantini," pub- 

 lished in L583. Dodoens's plant "Festuca altera" is, according to 

 Trinius, Bromus secalinus L. Later pre-Linnsean author- used tin 1 

 name in various way-, mostly, however, for Bpecies of Bromus. 



In the first edition of the Genera Plantarum, 17-'>7. Linnseus cites 

 two plate-, aamely, Dillenius, Catalogus Plantarum, plate 3, which i- 

 evidently some species of Bromus, and Scheuchzer, plate •"•. figures 



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