HITCHCOCK AND CHASE—NORTH AMERICAN PANICUM. 223 
DESCRIPTION. 
Vernal culms leafy, ascending from a geniculate base, 20 to 70 cm. high, densely 
villous with soft, spreading hairs, rarely glabrate above, the nodes more or less bea rded; 
sheaths velvety papillose villous or the upper glabrate; ligule 2 to 3 mm. long; blades 
ascending or spreading, 4 to 8 cm. long, 6 to 13 mm. wide, lanceolate, slightly cordate at 
base, sharply acuminate, usually ciliate, the lower sur- 
face velvety papillose puberulent, the upper surface 
from appressed papillose pubescent to long-villous, or 
nearly glabrous except for long hairs near the base or 
margin; panicles 3 to 10 cm. long, about as wide, the 
axis usually villous, the branches flexuous, the lower 
spreading or even reflexed; spikelets 1.8 to 1.9 mm. 
long, 0.9 mm. wide, obovate, turgid, abruptly subacute, 
pilose; first glume about one-third the length of the 
spikelet, subacute; second glume and _ sterile lemma 
barely equaling the fruit at maturity; fruit 1.3 to 1.4 mm. long, 0.9 mm. wide, 
elliptic, abruptly acute. 
Autumnal form appearing early, the primary culms branching at all but the upper- 
most nodes before the maturity of the primary panicles, these branches often excced- 
ing the culm, more or less zigzag, repeatedly branching, the ultimate branchlets in 
dense, short, flabellate fascicles, the reduced blades flat or involute-pointed, the long 
hairs on the margins and upper surface usually conspicuous. 
Fig. 229.—P. acuminatum. From 
type specimen. 
DISTRIBUTION. 
Sandy pine woods, the West Indies; also in the United States of Colombia. 
Cusa: Herradura, Hitchcock 140, Tracy 9078; Pinar del Rio, Palmer & Riley 447; 
Wright 3874; Isle of Pines, Curtiss 307, 328, Palmer & Riley 989, 1083, A. A. 
Taylor in 1901. 
Jamaica: Swartz, Hart 736. 
Santo Domrinco: Poiteau (Paris Herb.). 
Porro Rico: Santurce, Heller in 1903, Maricao, Sintenis 355; Fajardo, Sintenis 
1224 in part; Lares, Sintenis 5908. 
Cotomsra: Near Jamundt, Pittier 932, 982a. 
128. Panicum auburne Ashe. 
Panicum auburne Ashe, N. C. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 175: 115. 1900. “Auburn, 
Ala., May 7, 1898. Collected by Professors F. 8. Earle and C. Baker, of the Alabama 
Biological Survey, at Auburn, Ala., May 7, 1898. No, 1527."’ The type specimen, 
in Ashe’s herbarium, consists of several immature vernal 
culms with portions of the dead autumnal culms of the pre- 
ceding year attached. 
DESCRIPTION, 
Vernal form grayish velvety-villous throughout; culms 
tufted, 20 to 50 cm. high, geniculate at base, widely spread- 
ing, soon becoming branched and decumbent, rather slender, 
densely papillose silky villous below, velvety with copious 
silky hairs intermixed above; sheaths usually about half the length of the internodes, 
villous like the culms; ligules 3 to 4 mm. long; blades rather thin, ascending, 3 to 7 
cm. long, 3 to 5 mm. wide, acuminate, slightly narrowed toward the base, the upper 
Fic. 230.—P. auburne. 
From type specimen. 
