HITCHCOCK AND CHASE—NORTH AMERICAN PANICUM. 177 
99. Panicum bicknellii Nash. 
Panicum bicknellit Nash, Bull. Torrey Club 24: 193. 1897. “The type specimens 
were collected by Mr. Eugene P. Bicknell * * * in Bronx Park [N. Y.] on July 
21, 1895.’’ The type, in Nash’s herbarium, is the early branching form of the plant. 
The spikelets are sparsely pubescent. 
Panicum nemopanthum Ashe, Journ. Elisha Mitchell Soc. 15:42. 1898. “Type 
material collected by the writer April, 1895, in the Penitentiary woods, Raleigh, 
N.C.” The type could not be found in Ashe’s herbarium, but a specimen from the 
type material labeled in Ashe’s handwriting is in the National Herbarium. This isa 
single vernal culm with an immature, partly included panicle; the spikelets are 
nearly or quite glabrous. 
Panicum bushii Nash, Bull. Torrey Club 26: 568. 1899. ‘‘Collected by B. F. Bush, 
in dry ground, in McDonald Co., Missouri, July 24, 1893 no. 413.”’ The type in the 
Columbia University Herbarium consists of a small tuft of branching culms, the pri- 
mary panicles devoid of spikelets; most of the primary nodes sparsely pilose, most of 
the secondary ones glabrous; the spikelets glabrous. 
Although the types of P. nemopanthum and of P. bushii have glabrous spikelets, 
later collections of the species in the Peniten- 
tiary woods, Raleigh (Ashe & Chase 3092) and 
from B. F. Bush have pubescent spikelets. 
These two types are exceptional specimens. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Vernal form bluish green; culms erect or as- 
cending, 30 to 50 cm. high, glabrous, or the low- 
ermost portion puberulent, nodes sparsely 
bearded or glabrous; sheaths glabrous or the 
lower sparsely villous especially above the nodes; 
blades stiffly ascending, or somewhat spreading, 
elongated, 8 to 15 cm. long, 3 to 8 mm. wide, the uppermost usually longest, narrowed 
toward the base, there usually ciliate with a few stiff hairs; panicles ovoid, 5 to 8cm. 
long, about two-thirds as wide, the branches ascending, bearing few long-pediceled 
spikelets, these 2.3 to 2.8 mm. long, 1.1 to 1.2 mm, wide, oblong-elliptic, sparsely 
pubescent or rarely glabrous; first glume about one-third the length of the spikelet, 
subacute; second glume and sterile lemma equal, covering the fruit at maturity; fruit 
2mm. long, 1.1 mm. wide, elliptic, subacute. 
Autumnal form erect, branching from the middle nodes, forming a loose, bushy 
crown of stiffly ascending blades not much reduced and overtopping the narrow, 
few-flowered panicles. ‘ 
The long upper blades in this species 
are noticeable. Vernal specimenssome- 
times resemble P. werneri. 
One specimen, Bush 3246, has pilose 
sheaths and scattered long hairs on the 
blades. 
Fig. 172.—P. bicknellii. From type 
specimen. 
DISTRIBUTION. 
Dry, sterile or rocky woods, Connect- 
icut to Georgia and Missouri. 
Connecticut: Norwich, Graves 15 
in 1899. FiG. 173.—Distribution of P. bicknellii. 
New York: Bronx Park, Bicknell 
in 1895; Cedarhurst, Bicknell in 1903; Rockville Center, Bicknell in 1906; 
Woodmere, Bicknell in 1904; Rockport, Bicknell 1905. 
41616°—voL 15—10——12 
