36 
to a long, slender point ; sheaths glabrous, striate; panicle 1 foot or more in length, 
appressed, or becoming somewhat spreading, the lower branches verticillate, 6 
inches long, subdivided nearly to the base, narrowly paniculate; spikelets rather 
racemose, ovate, 23 lines long, acute; glumes thick, the lower glume about two- 
thirds the length of spikelet, acute; second glume the longest, 7-nerved, acu- 
minate; third glume rather shorter and obtusish; perfect flower linear-oblong, 
obtuse, one-fourth shorter than the spikelet.—Grows among the sand hills on the 
seashore. South Carolina to Florida. 
Var. MINOR Vasey & Scribn. Leaves involute; panicle shorter, narrower, distantly 
branched, comparatively few-flowered, the branches rather glomerate and unequal ; 
spikelets rather large (24 to 3 lines); the lower glumes longer, or nearly as long as 
the spikelet.—Fort Monroe, Va., and northward, near the coast. 
61. P. virgatum Linn. (Gray’s Manual, 6thed., p. 631.) Stout, erect, unbranched, 
8 to 5 feet high, from strong, creeping root-stocks; leaves flat, very long (1 foot or 
more), 3 to 4 lines wide, smooth; panicle compound, 6 to 18 inches long; branches 
single to verticillate, generally very numerous and becoming diffuse, spreading or 
drooping ; spikelets on rough pedicels, 14 to 2 lines long, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 
pointed, smooth; lower glume more than half the length of the spikelet (sometimes 
two-thirds), 5-nerved; second 5-nerved; third 5- to 7-nerved, acute to acuminate, 
larger than the perfect flower; sterile flower with 3 stamens; widely diffused and 
quite variable.—Maine to Florida, and throughout the interior of the country. 
The Atlantic form has spikelets about 14 lines long. The Western form has spike- 
lets about 2 lines long, the glumes acuminate. A form on the Atlantic coast has the 
panicle quite close and rather oblong, and may be called var, CONFERTA ; another form 
(var, ELONGATA) has a very long and narrow panicle, with spikelets even 24 lines 
long. 
62. P. Havardii Vasey. Bull. Torr. Club, xiv. p. 95. (P. virgatum var. macrosper- 
mum, Vasey.) With-the habit of Western forms of P. virgatum, but much stouter ; 
culms 5 to 6 feet high, with rigid, involute, long-pointed, glaucous leaves, ligule a 
ring of short hairs; panicle 1} feet long, diffuse, the branches less abundantly 
flowered ; spikelets 3 lines long; lowest glume one-half as long as the spikelet, promi- 
nently 5- to 7-nerved; second glume 9-nerved, ovate, acuminate; third glume 5- to 
7-nerved, its thick palet nearly as long; fertile flower about one-fourth shorter than 
the spikelet.—Guadalupe Mountains, Texas (Dr. Havard, G. C. Nealley). 
§ 8. FRUTESCENTES Vasey. 
63. P. divaricatum Linn. (Chapm. FI. S. States, p. 575.) Shrubby, smooth; 
culms 6 to 8 feet high with short and spreading branches; leaves lanceolate, acumi- 
nate, 2 to 4d inches long, 2 to 6 lines wide, deciduous from the persistent sheaths ; 
panicles terminating the branches, 1 to 3 inches long, nearly simple or branched, the 
branches rather distant and diverging, half to 1 inch long, rather sparsely subdi- 
vided; spikelets smooth, 2 lines long, tumid, obovate, nodding, on pedicels as long 
or longer; lower glume triangular-ovate, one-third as long as the spikelet; second 
and third glumes as long as the spikelet, very broad, 9- to 1l-verved; apex of the 
fertile flower downy-tipped.—Southern Florida. 
¢ 9. VILLIFLORA Vasey. 
64. P. Urvilleanum Kth. (Bot. Cal. u. p. 259.) Culms 14 to 2 feet high, from 
a strong running root-stock, the whole plant densely soft-hairy; near the base short- 
jointed and covered with weather-worn leaves or sheaths; leaves rigid, 12 to 18 
inches lony, 3 lines wide at the base, becoming convolute, and ending in a long, 
setaceous point, the upper ones exceeding the panicle, the latter 6 to 10 inches long, 
open, but rather contracted, the branches semiverticillate or scattered, the shorter 
ones flowering to the base; the longer ones (3 to 4 inches long) racemosely subdivided 
