34 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
Panicum pictigluma Steud. Syn. Pl. Glum. 1:73. 1854. “Brasil.” We have not 
seen the type of this, but Steudel cites P. purpurascens Raddi as a synonym and his 
description applies well to P. barbinode. 
Panicum paraguayense Steud.; Doell in Mart. Fl. Bras. 2?: 189. 1877. This is 
given as a synonym under P. numidianum Lam., and credited to ‘‘Steudel in planta- 
rum Renggeri schedulis.”’ We have not seen the type. 
The name P. numidianum Lam. was taken up as the earliest one for this species 
by Nees,¢ Doell,® Hitchcock, ¢ and others, but the type specimen of P. numidianum, 
“Ex numidia,’? in the Lamarck Herbarium, does 
not agree in all respects with the type of P. barbi- 
node. The lower glume is longer and is 3-nerved 
instead of l-nerved, the pedicels of the stalked 
spikelets are longer, and the rachis lacks the long 
hairs of P. barbinode, 
Panicum muticum Forsk.¢ is accepted for this 
species by Hooker ¢ and others, but the identity 
of Forskal’s species is uncertain, as we have not 
seen the type and the description is insufficient to 
identify it. Forskal’s plant was collected at Rosetta 
and is said to be allied to Panicum colonum. We 
are informed by Mr. A. B. Rendle that the type is 
not in the herbarium of the British Museum. 
Recent American authors / have applied the name P. molle Swartz to this species, 
but an examination of Swartz’s type g shows it to belong to a very different species. 
Fia. 15.—P. barbinode. From type 
specimen. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Plants perennial, sending out widely creeping stolons; culms decumbent at base, 
rooting at the lower nodes, 2 to 5 or 6 meters high, or higher in cultivation, robust, 
simple, or producing leafy shoots only, glabrous, the nodes densely villous; sheaths 
softly or harshly villous to merely papillose or even glabrous toward the summit, 
densely pubescent at the juncture with the blades; ligules membranaceous, densely 
ciliate, about 1 mm. long; blades ascending or spreading, 10 to 30 cm. long, 10 to 15 
mm. wide, rounded at the base, glabrous on both surfaces, the margin scabrous; panicle 
12 to 20 cm. long, about half as wide, the rather distant, subracemose, densely flowered 
branches ascending or spreading, the main axis and the somewhat flattened branches 
scabrous on the edges, densely pubescent in the axils, a few stiff hairs on the very 
short pedicels; spikelets 3 mm. long, 1.3 mm. wide, elliptic; first glume about 
one-fourth the length of the spikelet, 1-nerved, acute; second glume and sterile lemma 
subequal, both exceeded by the sterile palea; fruit about 2.5 mm. long, 1.1 mm. 
wide, obtuse, minutely transversely rugose. 
This species, commercially known as “‘ Para grass,’’ is cultivated in South America, 
the West Indies, and Mexico, and has been introduced into the Gulf States. 
a Agrost. Bras. 122. 1829. 
6 Mart. Fl. Bras. 27: 188. 1877. 
eContr. Nat. Herb. 12: 224. 1909. 
dF]. Aegypt. Arab, 20. 1775. 
eFl. Brit. Ind. 7: 34. 1896. 
fScribner, U. S. Dept. Agr. Div. Agrost. Bull. 14: 54. 1900; Nash in Small, 
FI. Southeast. U. 8. 90. 1903. 
gSee P. molle Swartz, page 42; and for a full discussion of Swartz’s types, see 
Hitchcock, Contr. Nat. Herb. 12: 135-143. 1908. 
