242 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
148. Panicum commonsianum Ashe. 
Panicum commonsianum Ashe, Journ. Elisha Mitchell Soc. 15: 55.1898. ‘‘ Based 
on no. 341, Commons. Collected in drifting sands along the coast, Cape May, N. J., 
June, 1898.’’ The type, in Ashe’s herbarium, ‘“‘Ex. Herb. A. Commons,”’ consists of 
five tufts of vernal culms with mature primary panicles. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Vernal plants grayish olive, drying brownish; culms usually in dense tufts 20 to 50 
cm. high, stiffly ascending or spreading, papillose-strigose to appressed-pilose, the hairs 
at the nodes more spreading; sheaths shorter than the internodes, strigose to appressed- 
pilose like the culms but less densely so; ligules 1 mm. long or less; blades firm, 
stiffly ascending, 5 to 8 (rarely 9) cm. long, 4 to 7 
mm. wide, broadest near the rounded base, the ser- 
rulate, cartilaginous margin involute toward the 
acuminate apex, glabrous on the upper surface or 
with a few long hairs toward the base or margin, 
strigose on the lower surface or glabrous; panicles 
long-exserted, 4 to 8 cm. long, about as wide, 
loosely flowered, the axis and branches strigose 
to nearly glabrous, the branches stiffly spreading, 
spikelet-bearing toward the ends; spikelets 2.2 to 
2.4 mm. long, 1.2 mm. wide, elliptic, subacute, 
pubescent; first glume about half as long as the 
spikelet, sometimes longer, usually pointed, 3-nerved; second glume slightly shorter 
than the fruit and sterile lemma at maturity; fruit 2mm. long, 1 mm. wide, elliptic, 
subacute. 
Autumnal culms branching from the middle and upper nodes, after the maturity 
of the primary panicles becoming spreading or prostrate, the larger clumps forming 
mats in the sand, the reduced secondary subinvolute blades rather crowded, stiffly 
ascending, overtopping the panicles; 
winter blades lanceolate, commonly 
more hairy than those of the culm. 
This species is variable as to pubes- 
cence. 
Fra. 259.—P. commonsianum. From 
type specimen. 
t 
1 
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DISTRIBUTION. 
To 
i 
f 
a ae 
Dunes and sandy woods near the ; 
coast, Connecticut tonorthern Florida. ae pore 
Connecticut: North Haven, An- 
drews in 1901; South Windsor, 
Bissell 12000. Fia. 260.—Distribution of P. commonsianum. 
New York: Lake Roukonkoma, 
Bicknell; Rockville Center, Bicknell in 1906; Valley Stream, Bicknell in 1905; 
Hempstead, Bicknell in 1903. 
New Jersey: South Amboy, Mackenzie 1485, 2155, 2165; East Plains, Stone 
4, 6; Lakehurst, Mackenzie 2067; Toms River, Bicknell in 1900, Chase 3575; 
Forked River, Chase 3584, 3596; Atsion, Chase 3531, 3541, 3544, 3570; Cape 
May, Canby 4 in 1902, Commons 43, 341; Wildwood, Chase 3517}. 
DELAWARE: Lewes, Hitchcock 408. 
