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the shorter palet of the same texture. Stamens 3. Styles 2, distinct 
to the base. Stigmas plumose. Spikes simple, terminal, or subdigi- 
tate or approximate or scattered along the general peduncle, spreading 
or reflexed. 
§ 1. ANASTROPHUS Benth. 
Spikelets rather distichous than secund, with the back of the flower- 
ing glume turned outwards or away from the rachis. 
1. P. platycaule Poir. (Vasey in Bull. Torr. Club, xu. 162.) Culms very slender, 
6 to 18 inches high, from a creeping rhizome; peduncle long, exserted, terminated by 
a pair of spikes (1 to 2 inches long), or 3 or 4 approximate slender spikes, and fre- 
quently with several long peduncled lateral ones; spikelets single, elliptical-oblong, 
acutish or obtuse, outer glumes little longer than the flower, generally only 2-nerved; 
leaves narrowly linear, smooth, obtuse, the sheaths much compressed.— Damp 
ground; Florida to Texas. 
2. P.furcatum Flugge, (P. Digitaria Chapm. non Poir.; P. Elliottii Wats. (Gray’s 
Manual, 6th ed., p. 629); P. Michauxanum Kth.) Culms ascending from a creeping 
and branching base, 1 to 2 feet high; leaves lanceolate, obtuse, or rather acute, 3 to 
6 inches long, 3 to 6 lines wide, smooth or hairy; spikes mostly in pairs from slender, 
elongated peduncles (often 2 to 3 together from the upper sheath), slender, 3 to 4 
inches long; spikelets about 2 lines long, lanceolate, acute; empty glumes, 5- to 7- 
nerved, one-third longer than the obtuse flower.—Wet ground, North Carolina to 
Florida and Texas, 
Var. VILLOSUM; leaves and sheaths very villous. 
3. P. compressum Nees. Mart. Bras. 11. p. 23. Culms decumbent and creeping, 
stout, about 1 foot high, nodes 2 or 3, ciliate- woolly ; lower Jeaves 6 inches long, 4 to 
6 lines wide, obtusish, 13-nerved, finely ciliate on the margins, upper ones 1 to 2 
inches long; sheaths compressed, loose ; spikes 3, approximate, 3 to 4 inches long; 
spikelets ovate, about 1 line long, acute, the empty glumes sparsely pubescent, a 
little longer than the obtuse flowering glume.—Manatee, Fla. (J. H. Simpson). 
This species is intermediate between P. platycaule and P. furcatum. It has none 
of the subradical spikes of the first. 
§ 2. EUPASPALUM Benth. — 
Spikelets more or less secund along the rachis, with the back of the 
flowering glume turned inward or toward the rachis. 
(1) Subsection Pseudoceresia Benth. 
Rachis of the spikes membranaceous, dilated, and applied close to 
and nearly inclosing the flowers when mature. 
4. P, fluitans Kunth. (Gray’s Manual, 6th ed., p.628.) Culms decumbent and creep- 
ing, 1 to 3 feet long, smooth; leaves from 2 to 6 inches long, 4 to 8 lines wide, sca- 
brous; panicle 3 to 6 inches long, formed of numerous (20 to 50) linear spikes, 
becoming spreading or sometimes reflexed, the lower ones often fascicled, the others 
scattered ; rachis wider than the spikelets, acute, the point extending beyond the 
spikelets ; spikelets small (one-half to two-thirds of a line long), oblong, acute, 
whitish; empty glumes pointed, thin, without a midrib, sparsely hairy; fertile 
Hower a little shorter than the empty glumes.—On muddy shores, and floating in 
water, Maryland to Louisiana and Texas. 
5. P. Walterianum Schultes. (Chapm. Fl. 8. States, p. 570.) Culms decum- 
bent and creeping, smooth, much branched, 1 to 2 feet long; leaves linear, short (1 
to 2 inches); sheaths mostly longer than the internodes ; spikes 3 to 7, usually 3 or 4, 
approximate or becoming somewhat distant, the lowest included in the uppermost 
sheath, 1 to finches long, smooth, ovate, rather obtuse; glumes, 5-nerved.—Mary- 
land ; southward and westward to Louisiana. 
