Page:New species of grasses from South America.djvu/3

Rh and pedicels glabrous; glumes subequal, broad, abruptly acuminate, glabrous, obscurely 5-nerved, about 7 mm. long; lemma about 4.5 mm. long, the callus rather blunt, 1 mm. long, densely hispidulous with fuscous hairs, the body oblong, somewhat over 1 mm. wide, dark brown, villous all over with brown hairs, scarcely narrowed at summit; awn twice geniculate, twisted below, the first segment rather densely short-villous, 1 to 3 mm. long, the second segment 3 to 4 mm. long, the third about 1 cm. long.

Type in the herbarium of the Field Museum of Natural History, No. 517,331 (in part), collected on upland slope, about 4500 meters altitude, Rio Blanco, Peru, May 8 to 19, 1922, by Macbride and Featherstone (No. 803a). No other specimen has been seen.

The type is mounted with plants of Stipa hans-meyeri Pilg.

Culms loosely tufted, spreading at the tough and woody base, several-noded, glabrous, branching at the lower nodes, 60 to 80 cm. tall; sheaths glabrous, minutely pubescent at the throat; ligule very short, the sheaths extending into a short auricle on each side; blades flat or loosely involute, glabrous, 5 to 10 cm. long, about 1 mm. wide; panicle narrow, loose, 10 to 20 cm. long, the branches slender, rather remote, few at each node, the lower as much as 8 cm. long; glumes subequal, acuminate, hyaline, 3-nerved, glabrous, 5 to 6 mm. long; lemma 5 mm. long, the callus densely pubescent, 0.5 mm. long, the body pale, villous all over, gradually narrowed toward the summit, the crown wanting; awn twice geniculate and twisted below, puberulent, 3 to 4 cm. long.

Type in the herbarium of the Field Museum of Natural History, No. 516,986, collected on disintegrating rock slopes, at about 2500 meters altitude, Matucana, Peru, April 12 to May 3, 1922, by Macbride and Featherstone (No. 452). The only other specimen seen was collected on rocky ledge, northwestern exposure, at about 2600 meters, Uspachaca, Peru, June 23, 1922, by Macbride and Featherstone (No. 1317).

Plant annual; culms erect or somewhat spreading at base, terete, glabrous, 50 to 60 cm. tall; sheaths puberulent, ciliate on the margin, somewhat villous at the throat, somewhat keeled but not conspicuously compressed; ligule a short ciliate membrane; blades flat or loosely involute, puberulent on both surfaces, 10 to 20 cm. long, 1 to 3 mm. wide; spikes several, mostly 4 to 6, slender, ascending or appressed, 3 or 4 at the end of the culm and 1 to 3 about 2 cm. below, sometimes another below these, puberulent at the base, 7 to 10 cm. long; spikelets with 1 perfect floret and 1 or 2 rudiments, appressed along the scabrous, angled axis, somewhat distant, the pedicels less than 1 mm. long; glumes pale, narrowly lanceolate, acuminate, 1-nerved, scabrous on the keels, the first about 4 mm., the second about 5 mm. long; first lemma narrow, terete below, hispidulous on the callus, glabrous above, nerveless, rounded on the back, ciliate on