PIPER- NORTH AMERICAN 9PECIE8 01 1 l> I i < \. 39 



32. Festuca fratercula Rupr. 



Festwca fratercula Rupr.; Fourn. Mex. PL 2: 124. 1881. a Type collected on Mount 

 ( Orizaba, Mexico, at 3,500 to 3,580 meters altitude, by < laleotti. 



M -< RIP] !<>\. 



A loosely tufted, glabrous perennial, 60 to 90 cm. high; stem erect, slender, very 

 smooth and Bhining, with 3 nodes; offshoots few, extravaginal, rather short; sheaths 

 smooth, much shorter than the internodes; ligule very Bhort, truncate; blades thin, 

 flat, spreading, linear. L0 to 25 cm. l<>n:_ r , 3 to 6 mm. wide, quite smooth, scabrous on 

 the margins, attenuate-acuminate to the convolute apex; panicle slender 10 to 15 

 cm. l"ii'_ r . flexuous and somewhat nodding; rays mostly solitary, some in pair-, 

 very Blender, scabrous on the angles, usually branched below the middle, the l< 

 in cm. long, ascending, flower-bearing in the upper third; spikelets oblong, •'! to 

 5-flowered, 7 to L2 nun. long; glumes membranous, green, the lower l-nerved, ovate- 

 lanceolate, acute, 1.5 to 2 mm. long, Bcarious-margined, scabrous on the keel: the 

 upper oblong, 3-nerved, subacute, scarious-margined, scabrous on the keel; lemma 

 tl to 9 nun. long, 3-nerved, or with 2 additional faint intermediate nerves, lanceolate, 

 keeled to the base, scabrous, and bearing at apex an awn 0.5 to 2 mm. long; palea 

 linear-lanceolate, acute, scabrous on the nerve.-, 6 to 6.5 nun. long, the inflexed 

 Bides one-third as broad as the internerve; apex of ovary obtuse or emarginate and 

 slightly hairy, the stigmas rather distant; lodicules oblique, entire or laciniate, as 

 long a< the ovary or shorter. 

 The following specimen- are somewhat doubtfully referred to this species: 

 Aki/<>\ \ : 



Rincon Mountains, Nealley 177. 

 Colorado: 



Pagosa Peak. Baker 178, 177. 36, 75, 94. 



Durango, Tw< > dy 393a. 



33. Festuca subulata Trin. 



Festuca subulata Trin. in Bong. Mem. Acad. St. Petersb. VI. 2: 173. L832. Type 

 from the neighborhood of Sitka, collected by Mertens. Presumably it is in the St. 

 Petersburg Academy of Science. We have seen no authentic specimen, but the 

 ample description accord- bo well with plants from near the type locality that there 

 is scarcely room to question the identity of the specie-. 



Festuca jonesii Vasey, Contr. Nat. Herb. 1:278. L893. Type in the National Herba- 

 rium, collected by M. P. Jones "in southern Utah," but Mr. Jones notes that the 

 locality i< really in the "Wasatch Mts., City (reek Canyon, above Sail Pake Pity." 



We can find no characters by which F. jonesii can he kept distinct from /•'. subulata, 

 even as a subspecies. The two type specimens are from almost the extremes ni the 

 range of the species. Contrasted with the Alaska specimens, the type of F. jonesii 

 has Blightly narrower leaves, ami somewhat smaller spikelets, with its florets closer 

 together, and tin- joint- of the rachilla less scabrous. All manner of intergrades 

 occur, however, and in such numbers that no satisfactory line. if separation can he 

 drawn. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Steins erect, ohsenrely striate, retrorsely SCaberuloUS, 40 to 120 cm. high, 2 to I- 



jointed; sheaths striate, nearly Bmooth, elongate but shorter than the internodes; 

 ligule scarious, about l mm. long; blades dark green above, paler beneath, flat, thin, 

 10 to 30 cm. long, '■'> to lo mm. broad, auriculate at base, usually sharply Bcabrous on 

 both face-, many-nerved, lax and spreading; panicle very loose and somewhat droop- 

 ing, 15 to 40 cm. long; rays in :) to 5 sets, mostly in twos, all pnlvillate at base, 



" The original description i- given on \>. 16. 



