CONTRIBUTIONS FROM Till- NATIONAL BERBARIUM. 



abrella major Vasey, Contr. Nat. Herb. 1: 278. 1893. Type Bpecimen in 

 the National Herbarium, collected in Spokane County, Washington, bj Bukadoii 

 I no. 118), June 18, 1884. Thia i- a much larger plant than the type of Melica hallii, 

 with a larger and looser panicle Most of the United States material is quite 

 intermediate bet* een the two. 



Festuca campestru Rydb. Mem. N. V. Bot. Gard. 1:57. 1900. Proposes a new 

 name for the above, on account of the older Festuca nutans major Vasej . which latter, 

 however, is a technically unpublished name. 



DEB4 RIPTION. 



Densely tufted, the broad leave- numerous; culms erect, 2-jointed, Bmooth oi 

 n»u-. 30 to 90 cm. high; upper sheaths scabrous, closely enveloping the stem, the 

 lower smooth, exceeding the internodes, enlarged and somewhat explanateat base; 

 ligule small; blades hard and strongly involute, pale or glaucous, 10 to 30 or even 50 

 cm. long, pungently acute, usually very scabrous, the basal ones deciduous from the 

 persisting sheaths; panicle narrow and rather close, often subsecund, 3 to 15 cm. long, 

 rays solitary «»r in pairs, very scabrous, usually ascending or appressed, Bpikelet- 

 bearing near the end, the longest less than half the panicle, often pulvillate-thickened 

 at base; spikelets oblong 8 to 12 mm. long, 4to6-flowered; glumes unequal, smooth, 

 or scabrous near the apex, the lower lanceolate, L-nerved, 7 to 8 mm. long, the 

 upper ovate-lanceolate, ".-nerved. 8 to 9 mm. long; lemma firm, dull, 5-nerved, 

 keeled near the apex, densely and finely scabrous, s to 10 mm. long, acute or rather 

 abruptly mucronate or short-awned; palea about as long as the lemma, notched at 

 the apex, pubescenl on the nerves, the inflexed sides more than half as broad a< the 

 Internen e. 



Festuca hallii ranges from British Columbia to North Dakota, Colorado, and Wash- 

 ington. We would also refer here two specimens from Dawson, Yukon, namely. R. 

 S. Williams. July 13, 1899, and John McClean, no. 84. 



The species as thus delimited includes rather diverse-looking material, but in the 

 light of the specimens at hand we can suggest no better disposition. There an 

 reasons, indeed, for considering it a mere subspecies of F. altaica. 



21. Festuca aristulata (Torr. i Shearms. 



Bromus kalmii aristulatus Torr. Pac. R. Rep. 4: 157. l s ">'>. Type in the National 

 Herbarium, collected on .Mark West Creek. California. April 30, 1854, by Dr. J. M. 

 Bigelow. 



Festuca califomica Vasey, Contr. Nat. Herb. 1: 277. 1893. Type in the National 

 Herbarium, collected on hills about Oakland, California, by Bolander (no. 1505) in 



DESCRIPTION. 



A coarse tufted L r ra.-s with numerous basal leaves: culm- erect, stout. 2-jointed, about 

 tin to 120 cm. high, striate, scabrous; sheaths somewhat scabrous, often purplish, the 

 lower lon<z-persistiiiL r , the collar and auricles white-pilose; ligule filiate, very Bhort; 

 blades flat or involute, hard, densely beset with minute scarcely rough granulati< ns. 

 S to 4i> cm. long, acute at the apex. L' to 5 mm. broad, inclined to be deciduous from 

 tin- -heath-: panicle ample, usually loose, l" to :;o cm. long; ray- slender, usually 

 elongated, terete or angled, scabrous, in about 4 whorls of l> to :; each, pulvillate- 

 thickened basally; spikelets 8 to 18 mm. long, broadly oblong, compressed, mostly 

 5-flowered; joints of the rachilla cylindric, scabrous, 2 to '■'< mm. long; glumesoblong- 

 lanceolate, firm, smooth, except the Bcabrous midnerve, the lower l-nerved. about 

 5 to 7 mm. long, the upper 3-nerved, n' to 8 nun. Long; lemma 8 to 10 mm. long, 

 lanceolate, convex, nrin, 5-nerved, finely and evenly scabrous, acuminate or short- 



