296 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
Sandy woods, southeastern United States and Cuba (La Grifa la Catolina, 
Wright 3884). Originally described from South Carolina. 
12. Syntherisma argillacea sp. nov. 
A cespitose perennial; culis ascending, slender, branching from the lower 
nodes, glabrous, 15 to 60 cm. tall, the nodes sparsely pilose; leaves mostly 
clustered toward the base, olivaceous, the sheaths and upper surface of the 
blades scabrous, usually rather densely papillose-pilose (sometimes scabrous 
only), the lower surface of the blades sparsely so; ligule membranaceous, about 
0.5 mm. long; blades flat, ascending, 3 to 8 cm. long, 3 to 4 mm. wide, tapering 
from base to apex; panicle long-exserted, of 1 to 6 (usually 8 or 4) ascending 
racemes, the common axis 0.5 to 4 cm. long, scabrous on the angles, short- 
villous in the axils; racemes 1 to 8 cm. long, the slender wingless zigzag rachis 
scabrous on the angles; spikelets in pairs (rarely in 3’s) on slender scabrous 
pedicels, 2 mm. long (or the hairs slightly exceeding 2 mm.), 0.8 mm. wide; 
first glume an obscure hyaline rudiment or wanting; second glume about three- 
fourths the length of the sterile lemma, the margins and internerves of both 
(except the middle pair of the lemma) densely clothed with thick glistening 
hairs, some as much as 1 mm, long, exceeding the spikelet as a brushlike tip; 
fruit dark brown, 1.7 to 18 mm. long, 0.7 mm. wide, fusiform, the hyaline 
lemma margins meeting over the upper half of the p:lea. 
Type in the U. 8. National Herbarium, no. 732423, collected on shaded rocks 
along a trail, Monte Alegrillo, near Maricao, Porto Rico, at an altitude of 800 
meters, October 20, 1913, by Agnes Chase (no. 6221). 
Probably most nearly related to Symtherisina leucocoma and S. panicea, 
from both of which it differs in the short, flat blades. The long hairs of the 
smaller spikelets are thicker and stiffer than in the spikelets of S. lewcocoma 
and longer than in those of S. panicea. 
Clay soil, Cuba (Herradura, Tracy 9104; near Minas, Ledn 4785; Guana- 
bacoa, Leén 4715; Manacas, Ledn 5843), and Porto Rico (Maricao, Chase 6221; 
Monte Mesa, Chase 6271, 6277). 
29. THRASYA H. B. K. 
Inflorescence a single terminal spikelike raceme, the rachis with mem- 
branaceous wings, partially embracing the row of spikelets; spikelets appar- 
ently subsessile and solitary in a single row, but actually in pairs, the spikelets 
of each pair back to back, the pedicel of the primary spikelet adnate to the 
midnerve of the rachis; first glume minute, often hyaline; second glume shorter 
than the spikelet; sterile lemma subindurate, thinner down the middle, at 
maturity splitting to the base, the margins of the split rolling inward, the 
sterile palea nearly as long as its lemma, the margins firm, inclosing a staminate 
flower or empty; fruit cartilaginaus-indurate, commonly with stiff hairs at the 
summit. 
Rachis ciliate with stiff hairs; blades pilose, at least on the margin. 
1. T. paspaloides. 
Rachis not ciliate; blades glabrous or nearly so _-2. T. robusta. 
1. Thrasya paspaloides H. B. K. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 1: 121. pl. 39. 1816. 
Panicum thrasya Trin. Mém. Acad. St. Pétersb. VI. Sci. Nat. 837: 228, 1834. 
A slender, erect, densely tufted perennial, 25 to 50 cm. tall, at length branch- 
ing from the upper nodes, with narrow flat pilose blades and long-exserted 
arcuate racemes 3 to 5 cm. long, the spikelets stiffly ciliate. In referring the 
