By A. A. Eaton.
FIFTEENTH PAPER.
Varieties of E. Hiemale.
1. _Intermedium_ A. A. Eaton. Stems 1 to 4 feet high, 1 to 4 lines in
diameter, simple or ultimately branched, 20 to 30 angled, rough with
transverse bands of silex or becoming smoother by a later deposit
covering them; sheaths longer than broad, ampliated, green excepting
narrow black and white incurved limb, or exceptionally with other black
and white markings; leaves keeled below the middle, flat and often
centrally grooved above; teeth thin, brown, hyaline-bordered, deciduous
or persistent; anatomy of _hiemale_ as previously described. New York,
Michigan and westward. Common west of the Mississippi, being an
important forage crop in some States. The anomalous _laevigatum_
collected by Rydberg at Thedford, Neb., No. 1283 (Cont. Nat. Herb. III,
194), is this variety, as is the plant referred to under the name of
_variegatum_ by V. K. Chestnut (Cont. Nat. Herb. VII, 304), as used for
various unimportant purposes by the Indians of Mendocino County,
California. He also mentions the fact that horses eat it even when grass
is abundant.
2. _Texanum_ Milde. Stems erect, very slender, somewhat rough, 10 to 12
angled, hardly 1 foot high, dirty green; sheaths elongated, slightly
widened, 2 to 2 1-3 lines long and 1 1-3 wide, concolorous, leaves flat,
centrally grooved and 4 angled above and centrally ridged below; teeth
persistent, flexuous, white with red-brown center, lance subulate,
smooth, only the lowermost three sheaths red-brown; ridges convex;
carinal bast 7, vallecular 4, cells high, vallecular holes transverse
oval; stomata rows separated by 7 to 8 cells, grooves naked, lumen of
epidermal cells very wide, angles with broad, short bands, never with
two rows of tubercles. Texas, _Chas. Wright_.
This is Milde's description. I have never seen this plant. Milde states
that it is a very peculiar plant that equals the weakest specimens of
var. _Moorei_, but differs greatly from it, and he asks if it may not be
the young stage of a larger species.
3. _Herbaceum_ var. nov. Cespitose, decumbent, ascending or erect, 3 to
10 inches high, 1/2 to 1 line in diameter, 6 to 12 angled, weak and
herbaceous or becoming firmer the second year, usually bearing a single
branch 1 to 2 inches long at each node. Walls of the stem thicker than
in _hiemale_; ridges with long cross-bands; grooves naked, except for
small spots of silex on the cells; sheaths elongated and very
wide-spreading, with a narrow black band at tip, otherwise green or (in
dried specimens at least) all suffused with black; leaves 3-angled or
flat in the middle above, rarely bearing a central groove; teeth
fuscous, flexuous, deciduous, leaving a hard, horny, centrally grooved
erect or incurved, usually shining, borderless leaf base 1/2 its height;
spikes narrowly elliptical, rounded, not apiculate. _Coville & Funston_,
1297, Death Valley Exp., banks of Kaweah river at Three Rivers, Tulare
Co., Calif., July 26, 1891 (Nat. Herb., 25, 101), as _variegatum_. Three
little plants, 3 inches high, well fruited (Cont. Nat. Mus. IV, 226).
_C. & F._, 1042, 1 mile south of Kernville, Kern Co., Calif., on north
fork of Kern river, Alt., 750 meters, June 23, 1901, as _variegatum_
(Nat. Herb., 25100).
In some of its characters, such as sheaths and persistent, incurved
leaf-bases, this plant resembles _Funstoni_, but the section is similar
to _hiemale_. An abundance of material might show this to be a good
species. The only thing I have seen that approaches it in texture is _E.
Sieboldi_ Milde from Japan, which is even more grass-like.
4. _Pumilum_ var. nov. Cespitose; stems in a dense cluster, 6 to 15
inches tall, 8 to 16 angled, 1/2 to 1 line in diameter, mostly
geniculate at the lower nodes, nearly all the joints tumid, the lower
gibbous; ridges with cross-bands of silex, grooves naked; sheaths tight,
often symmetrical through the tumidity of the node, narrowest in the
middle except where nodes are normal, bearing a broad black band below
and a narrower black limb, the two separated by a pinkish or dirty white
band which is often suffused with black or even entirely black towards
the top of the stem, fading to dirty ashy the second year, ultimately
splitting, recurving and falling off in patches; leaves linear, erect,
prominently 3-angled, the central one sometimes grooved on the smallest
stems and branches; teeth persistent, dark brown, somewhat flexuous,
white-bordered for 1-5 to 1-4 their height.
Found at intervals for a mile along the railroad grade at North Hampton,
N. H. At the foot of the grade, in moist soil near a brook, probably
from the same source as this, a form of _affine_ grows, but the joints
are often tumid and occasionally geniculate, the branches when present
like stems of this, tumid jointed, often so gibbous as to rupture the
sheath. Peculiar for its small cespitose stems, dark sheaths and
especially the tumid or gibbous nodes, which make the stems thickest
there, while usually the nodes are contracted.
This is near the European variety _viride_ Milde, but differs in having
bands on the ridges, no rosulæ in the grooves, and in the tumid joints.
5. _Suksdorfi_ var. nov. Stems 1 to 2-1/2 feet high, 1 to 3 lines wide,
about 24 angled, rough, with cross-walls of silex, rarely with ends
elevated to two rows of tubercles; stomata in single rows, rarely double
for a short distance, each stoma connected at top and bottom with its
opposite by rows of rosulæ formed by the silex bands of the grooves
throwing up tubercles on each cell of the epidermis, which open at top
to circular jagged disks, these often obscured later by a washing of
silex, but always shown near the tops of the stems and on the branches;
sheaths elongated, cylindrical, tight, black, developing a ring of tawny
white which gradually increases till it occupies the whole sheath except
a narrow black basal ring and a narrow black limb formed by the horny
tips of the leaves; leaves linear, narrowed above the middle, the lower
2-3 keeled, the upper third flat, rarely with a narrow carinal groove
above, tipped with a small, black, horny, hyaline-bordered point; teeth
articulated to the leaves, black-centered, soon fading, withering and
deciduous.
Anatomy of _hiemale_, the carinal bast elongated along the dissepiment,
the vallecular much smaller but often similar in shape. Upper 1 to 3
nodes bearing 1 to 4 branches each, which overtop the stem and bear
contemporaneous spikelets.
This would be a noteworthy variety even if it bore no branches. It is
the only American form of _heimale_ known to me, except occasionally
_intermedium_ which bears branches with the first effort of growth. All
the others develop them, if at all, after the stem has ceased to grow,
and the vegetative energy, having no other outlet, pushes out a few of
the latent buds lying between the ridges at the nodes.
Bingen, Wash. High bottom land on the Columbia river. _W. N. Suksdorf_,
September 3, 1902, No. 2161.
6. _Drummondi_ (Milde) _C. robustum Drummondi_ Milde, Mon. Equis. 593.
Fertile stems 3 feet high, 16 angled; sheaths short, the lowest fuscous;
teeth persistent, white, crispate; stomata often of 1 to 3 lines to a
series, which are separated by 4 to 6 cells.
Collected by Drummond at the Brazos river in Texas. It is very aberrant,
but is placed here on account of its anatomy. I have not seen specimens
of this.
7. _Affine_ (_Eng._) (_E. robustum affine Eng._) _E. hiemale_ of
American authors, not L. Stems 18 to 30 inches high, 2 to 5 lines in
diameter, finely 16 to 40 angled, dark green, angles with broad bands of
silex, rarely with two rows of tubercles. Internodes when dry contracted
above and below, widest in the middle as in _hiemale_, scurfy when
young; sheaths longer than broad, at first with a black limb, developing
a broad ashy band and narrow black basal ring, fading, rupturing and
deciduous the second or third year; leaves narrowly linear, sharply 3
angled, the central ridges only rarely centrally grooved except on the
branches, where they usually are; commissural groove very narrow, not
widened upward; teeth articulated to the sheaths, persistent or usually
cohering by their tips and torn off by the growth of the stem, those of
each sheath shaped like a candle extinguisher, all telescoped together
and borne up on the tip of the stem.
Very common in New England and the east generally, where the type of
_robustum_ is absent. Toward the west it runs into the next, but it is
occasionally found, even to the valley of Mexico (Pringle 3329).
Approaches typical _hiemale_ in its long sheaths and size, and differs
little except in the cross-bands of silex. Found usually in moist sand
near a watercourse; at times on high sandy banks. It is by no means
certain that this is the variety described by Engelmann under this name,
but from the brief description he gives it seems safe to assume that it
is. Two branched forms are found, as follows:
a. _Forma ramosum_ f. nov. (f. _Ramigerum_ A. A. E., in Gilbert's list,
p. 26, not A. Br. in Sched., which normally branches at the 3 to 5
middle nodes.) Stems issuing one to several branches from the upper
nodes after the death of the top of the main axis; teeth usually
persistent and leaves centrally grooved. b. _Forma polystachyum_ Prager.
Stems issuing small spiciferous branches late in the season. As remarked
by Mr. Gilbert (List, p. 26), these forms are seldom found together and
many patches show neither.
The stems of this variety persist at least three years and probably
longer. I have found but two causes of death, old age not appearing as a
factor. Both are fungoid. After the stem has persisted for a time small
white patches appear under the epidermis of the upper internode. These
increase in number and the internode finally dies, not, however, till
the second one shows the disease. This may continue till the whole stem
succumbs. The other fungus is a smut that breaks out in small pustules,
finally opening in black patches the size of the head of a pin or
smaller. They are usually numerous and the stem dies rapidly.
The growth of the stem is indeterminate, but as each succeeding section
is a little smaller than the one below, the time arrives in the history
of each when no more can be pushed out and the growth ceases. The
undeveloped internodes soon die and thus the stem, if it grows at all,
must put its energy into branches, as the silex coating prevents its
increase in diameter.
9. _Robustum_ (A. Br.) _E. robustum_ A. Br. Stems 3 to 6 feet tall, 2 to
6 lines wide, 16 to 48 angled, simple or branched the second year;
ridges rough with cross-bands of silex; grooves naked with a smooth coat
of silex, and when young with a thin white scurfy coat that soon falls
off; sheaths tight to the stem, or recurved and deciduous in fragments
in age, as broad as long, soon developing a black girdle at base, an
ashy or pinkish one through the middle and a black one above, the last
usually very small, all variable in breadth and intensity of color;
leaves linear, sharply 3 angled; commissural groove not widened above;
teeth more or less persistent for a season, seldom torn off by the
growth of the stem, articulated to the leaves, cohering, in groups,
brown centrally, with tawny margins 1/2 their height, ending in filiform
usually flexuous appendages, the edges beset with unicellular bristles;
branches variable in number and length, the sheaths mostly like those of
the stem except the teeth always persist and the leaves are usually
grooved centrally; spikes usually green, oval, up to an inch long and
half as wide, sharply apiculate. _Ramosum_ and _polystachyum_ forms
occur in this as well as in _affine_.
Rare east of the Mississippi, where it is replaced by var. _affine_.
Very common west, where it has been reported from nearly every State. I
have seen it from but six localities in the Eastern States, Wallingford,
Pa., _T. C. Palmer_; Towson, Md., _C. E. Waters_; Peoria, Ill., _F. E.
McDonald_; Illinois, without locality, _Dr. Brendell_; Mattsville, Ind.,
_Guy Wilson_; Sarnia, Mich., _C. K. Dodge_; accredited to New Jersey by
Milde, and also found in the Himalayas.
Var. _minus_ Eng. is simply the same thing reduced, often growing with
it. As there is already a variety _minus_ of _hiemale_ this name will
not stand, and the form is of too little moment to merit another.
Stems of this can usually be recognized at a glance, but it is hard to
embody the description in words that will enable one to separate it from
_affine_ at once. From _Californicum_ it can only be separated by use of
a lens, as their appearance is identical.
10. _Californicum_ Milde. Plants of various appearance, now 15 inches
high and 4 lines wide, now 7-1/2 to 8 feet tall and 8 lines wide, 25-40
angled; the ridges with two distinct rows of tubercles or occasionally
with transverse bands of silex, the grooves abundantly supplied with
rosulæ, either in regular rows or scattered, often indistinct on old
stems because of a heavy deposit of silex; sheaths as broad as long,
with a broad or narrow black or dark brown ring just above the base, an
ashy band in the middle and another usually narrow dark band at top. In
young plants the sheaths are usually concolorous with the stem save for
the terminal band; leaves linear, 3-angled with two rows of tubercles on
the middle angle; commissural groove narrow, slightly or not at all
widened above; teeth persistent, dark brown, firm, united two-thirds
their height by brown borders; or brown-centered, flexuous,
membranous-bordered, united or free, or early deciduous, leaving only a
small dark brown spot at the tip of the leaves; branches none or few,
short or up to 18 inches long, fruited or not, on the upper part of old
stems.
Type. California _Balfour_, 1854. I have seen it from the following
localities: California: Sacramento, _Wilkes Exp._ (Sheaths black, teeth
persistent, near var. _Javanicum_); Berkeley, _W. C. Blasdale_ (very
stout, often with two rows of stomata); San Rafael, _Munson & Hopkins_
(like last, but with one row of stomata). Arizona: Cedar Ranch,
_MacDougal_. Nevada: Humboldt Mts., _Watson_. Utah: Fish Lake, _Jones_;
Glenwood, _Ward_. Idaho: Peter Creek, _Sandberg_; Salmon, _Henderson_.
Oregon: Port Discovery, _Wilkes Exp._ Washington: Tacoma, _Flett_;
Klickitat Co., _Suksdorf_. British Columbia: New Westminster, _A. J.
Hill_. (No rosulæ, occasionally two rows of stomata, extraordinarily
thick coating of silex.)
Except the Berkeley and San Rafael plants these can be told from
_robustum_ only by aid of the microscope to see the tubercles and
rosulæ. Though specimens vary considerably in appearance, the presence
or absence of teeth, the size and intensity of the rings, a parallel can
usually be found in a good series of _robustum_.
11. _Doelli._ Stems 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 feet high, erect, dark green, 10 to
20 angled, the ridges with two rows of tubercles or short crossbands,
the former predominating; grooves with irregular rows of rosettes;
sheaths entirely black or with a narrow ashy band which is broader the
second year; the leaves plainly 4 angled through the grooving of the
central ridge; teeth persistent or becoming broken in age, rigid, erect,
dark brown or black, grooved in the center, with narrow white margins
and usually deciduous filiform tips. Somewhat resembles a robust _E.
trachyodon_, which it is quite near.
Type European. British Columbia, near Wharnock Station, _A. J. Hill_;
Vancouver, _Macoun_ (as _ramosissimum_); Blacktail Deer Creek,
Yellowstone Park, _Knowlton_. The latter is quite peculiar in appearance
and approaches _robustum_. None of the specimens exactly agree, but will
come here better than elsewhere. _The Ames Botanic Laboratory, North
Easton, Mass._