276 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
166. Panicum webberianum Nash. 
Panicum webberianum Nash, Bull. Torrey Club 23: 149. 1896. ‘‘Collected by 
the writer on the edge of a clay pit in the low pine land at Eustis, Lake Co., Florida, 
May 16-31, 1894, No. 781.’ The type, in Nash’s herbarium, consists of two small 
tufts of vernal culms 35 to 45 cm. high, with blades as much as | cm. wide, and mature 
primary panicles, the spikelets 2.5 mm. long. 
Panicum onslowense Ashe, Journ, Elisha Mitchell Soc. 16: 88. 1900. ‘Type 
material was collected near Ward’s Mill,’’ Onslow County, N.C. The type, in Ashe’s 
herbarium, is the vernal form with immature panicles, the culms glabrous or minutely 
puberulent, the lower blades as much as | cm. wide, the immature spikelets 2.4 mm, 
long. Other specimens in Ashe’s herbarium and some distributed as P. onslowense 
and bearing the same data as the type are 7. lancearium. 
DESCRIPTION. . 
Vernal form commonly purplish; culms few to several in a tuft, rather stout, erect 
or ascending, 20 to 50 cm. high, minutely puberulent or glabrous; leaves somewhat 
crowded below, distant above; sheaths minutely puberulent at the summit, often 
ciliate on the margin, otherwise glabrous or nearly so; blades firm, ascending, espe- 
cially the lower somewhat incurved or spoon-shaped, 3 to 9 cm. long, 4 to 12 mm. wide, 
usually ciliate at base and sometimes along the margin, rounded or subcordate at base, 
acute but not long-acuminate; panicles finally long-exserted, 4 to 10 cm. long, two- 
thirds as wide, the numerous flexuous branches spreading or the lower even reflexed, 
the branchlets and pedicels usually rather short, thus giving to the main branches a 
somewhat racemose appearance; spikelets 2.3 to 2.5 mm. long (in exceptional speci- 
mens only 2.1 to 2.2 mm. long), 1.2 to 1.3 mm. 
wide, obovoid to pyriform, commonly green, 
conspicuously purple-stained at the base; first 
glume one-third to two-fifths as long as the 
spikelet; second glume and sterile lemma mi- 
nutely pubescent or glabrous, the glumeslightly 
shorter than the fruit and sterile lemma; fruit 
1.9 to2mm, long, 1.2 mm. wide, elliptic, under 
a lens minutely papillose-roughened, puberu- 
1G. 309.—P. webberianum. From type lent at the tip. . 
specimen. Autumnal form spreading or decumbent, 
flabellately branching at the middle and upper 
nodes, the branches appressed and rather evenly distributed, sometimes somewhat 
fascicled; winter blades 3 to 8 cm. long, 5 to 10 mm. wide, strongly stained with 
purple, forming a flat rosette. 
As a whole this species is readily distinguished from P. lancearium by its stouter, 
taller culms, much larger blades, and in typical specimens by the larger spikelets, but 
a few specimens occur in which only the lower blades are much larger than in P. lan- 
ceartum, and rather numerous specimens in which the spikelets are only 2.1 to2.2 mm. 
long. The minutely papillose-roughened fruit proves constant for all the specimens 
here referred to P. webberianum, but this character is evident only under a strong lens. 
DISTRIBUTION. 
Low pine land, North Carolina to Florida. 
NortH Caro.tna: Onslow County, Ashe in 1899; Wilmington, Chase 45694, 
IMitcheock 1433, 1472. 
