PREFACE 



THE Index to Grass Species was conceived and started 

 by Dr. George Vasey, Botanist of the U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture and Curator of the U. S. National 

 Herbarium, sometime prior to 1900. It was continued 

 successively by F. Lamson-Scribner, E. D. Merrill, F. 

 Tracy Hubbard, Cornelia D. Niles, and Agnes Chase. 

 All of these, at the time they were interested in the 

 Index, were officially connected with the U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. Several other persons worked on 

 the Index for short periods, but their contributions were 

 relatively unimportant. 



Miss Niles was largely responsible for compiling the 

 Index from about 1908 until her retirement in 1950. 

 She served as secretary-bibliographer to A. S. Hitchcock 

 and Agnes Chase until the death of Professor Hitchcock 

 in December 1935 and the retirement of Mrs. Chase in 

 1939. She continued her work on the Index in spite of 

 inconveniences due to the moving of the Division of 

 Plant Exploration and Introduction, first to the South 

 Building of the Department of Agriculture, then to the 

 Plant Industry Station at Beltsville. About 1940, the 

 need of a second copy of the Index became apparent; 

 the original cards were becoming worn with use, and 

 another copy, kept in another location, was highly de- 

 sirable in case the original happened to suffer damage 

 or destruction. Miss Niles began preparing this copy on 

 3" X 5" cards instead of 41/^" x 61^" cards which were 

 used in the original copy. It was more than half, and 

 perhaps two-thirds completed, when unfortunately she 

 suddenly retired. Afterward, for a time, when an 

 entry was made in the original Index, a card was also 

 made for the second copy, which has remained, incom- 

 plete, in the New Crops Research Branch, at the Plant 

 Industry Station. 



- Although Mrs. Chase had made innumerable correc- 

 tions and additions to the cards through the years that 

 Miss Niles was compiling the Index, she took complete 

 charge in 1952. The following year she proposed having 

 another copy made on 4" x 6" cards, expecting that, 

 eventually, they would be reproduced and made avail- 

 able to all. With this in view, she verified and edited 

 the accuracy of the information on each card, frequently 

 adding data which would be helpful to those who used 



the Index. The services of Mrs. Florence M. Van Esel- 

 tine, herself a librarian and bibliographer, were obtained 

 to type it and assist in proofreading the completed cards. 

 The second "second" copy of the Index was finished by 

 the summer of 1957. Mrs. Chase, however, still felt that 

 it was not complete, and for several years continued to 

 make additions and corrections. Finally, in the spring 

 of 1962, it was decided that it was ready for reproduc- 

 tion. Mrs. Van Eseltine checked the cards a final time 

 to be sure they were in correct alphabetical order, and 

 in November the Index was photographed. 



The Index is world-wide in scope, containing names 

 of the species of grasses described from 1763 to 1962. 

 It is as complete as it is possible to make it, although it 

 is realized that some publications must have been over- 

 looked. The Index includes only binomials and tri- 

 nomials. The trinomials may be without designation as 

 to the rank of the taxon, or they may be forms, varieties, 

 subspecies, etc. The varieties, etc., are arranged alpha- 

 betically under a species without regard to the rank of 

 the trinomials. On each card there is the scientific name 

 of a species or variety, etc., with the authority and biblio- 

 graphic citation, the type locality, and the country from 

 which it was described. When the name is a transfer, 

 the basionym is given. Frequently there are pertinent re- 

 marks as well, such as: = another species. When this 

 indication represents a taxonomic opinion rather than a 

 simple transfer, the statement should be carefully veri- 

 fied, and not accepted per se. 



The Index will be continued under the direction of 

 the Curator of the Division of Grasses, Museum of 

 Natural History, U. S. National Museum, Smithsonian 

 Institution. It is planned to have a bibliographer on the 

 staff of the division as soon as possible, to compile it. 

 A supplement will be prepared when there are suffi- 

 cient additional entries to warrant it. In the meantime, 

 the Index will be maintained intact in the Division of 

 Grasses. 



Jason R. Swallen 

 Head Curator 

 Department of Botany 

 Smithsonian Institution 



