HITCHCOCK AND CHASE—NORTH AMERICAN PANICUM. 95 
the plant described by Elliott as P. amarum that we are forced to apply his name to 
the species named /?. amaroides. In the herbarium of the Philadelphia Academy is 
a specimen of this species bearing two tickets reading respectively ‘Panicum 
amarum” and “Elliott 8. ©.,”’ the former being in the handwriting found in the 
Elliott Herbarium. While this may not be the type, it would seem to be an authentic 
specimen. A second specimen of this species in the same herbarium bears a ticket 
reading ‘‘Georg. Baldw.”’ 
Panicum amarum minor[us] Vasey & Scribn. U.S. Dept. Agr. Div. Bot. Bull. 8: 38. 
1889. “Fortress Monroe, Va., and northward, near the coast.” The type specimen, 
in the National Herbarium, was collected by Dr, Vasey at Fort Monroe, Va., in 1879, 
Panicum amaroides Scribn. & Merr. U.S. Dept. Agr. Div. Agrost. Cire. 29: 5d. f. 1, 
1901. Based on P. amarum minus Vasey & Scribn. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Plants glaucous and glabrous throughout; culms solitary from the nodes of exten- 
sively creeping, horizontal rootstocks, simple or occasionally branching from the 
lower nodes, 30 cm. to 1 meter high; sheaths overlapping but commonly narrow and 
partially exposing the short, very glaucous internodes; ligules dense and silky, about 
3mm. long; blades ascending or spreading, thick, 10 to 30 em. long, 5 to 12 mm, wide, 
broadest at the base, flat below, involute toward the tip, margins smooth; panicles 
short-exserted or included at base, one-fourth to one-third the height of the plant, 
or sometimes more, not over 3 cm. wide, mostly few-flowered, the distant, appressed 
branches bearing scattered, short, appressed branchlets with approximate, short- 
pediceled spikelets; spikelets 5 to 6.5 mm. long, about 2 mm. wide and as much as 3 
mim. thick, narrowly ovate, acuminate, strongly nerved; first glume clasping, two- 
thirds to three-fourths the length of the spikelet, acuminate, 7 to 9-nerved, the 
midnerve usually scabrous toward the apex; second glume slightly longer than the 
sterile lemma, both much exceeding the fruit, 9-nerved, the midnerves scabrous 
toward the apex; fruit 3.5 mm. long, about 1.5 mm. wide, narrowly ovate. 
DISTRIBUTION. 
Sandy seashores and coast dunes, Connecticut to Georgia; also on islands off the 
coast of Mississippi. An important sand binder. 
Connecticut: New Haven, Winton in 1887. 
New York: Long Island, Miller, Young in 1872; Staten Island, Tyler in 1895, 
New Jersey: Cape May, Burk in 
| [Op 
i i ante . 
1881 (Hitchcock Herb.). 
DELAWARE: Cedar Neck, Com- 
mons 228 in 1875; Lewes, 
IMitcheock 227; without locality, 
Canby. 
Maryann: Bay Ridge, Scribner 
in 1897. 
VirGinia: Fort Monroe, MeCarthy 
in 1883, Vasey in 1879; Ports- 
mouth, Noyes 66 in 1895; 
Ocean View, Vasey in 1890; Fig. 86.—Distribution of P. amarum. 
Virginia Beach, Hitchcock 
169, Kearney 2064, Mackenzie 1736, Williams 3089. 
North Carona: Ocracoke Island, Kearney 2317; Brunswick County, McCarthy; 
Wilmington, /Titcheock 441; without locality, McCarthy in 1885. 
SourH Carona: Isle of Palms, Chase 4555. 
Grorcia: Tybee Island, Harper 742. 
Mississirri: Horn Island, racy 2854 and in 1897, 
