HITCHCOCK AND CHASE—GRASSES OF THE WEST INDIES. 301 
node. This species is exceedingly variable in habit; in dry ground it sometimes 
has blades not over 2 or 3 mm. wide. 
Moist grass land, southern United States to Argentina; also in the warmer 
parts of the Old World. Originally described from Jamaica. Paspalum plati- 
caulon was described from Porto Rico, and P. filostachyum from the Antilles, 
This species is an important pasture grass throughout the West Indies. 
Readily propagating by stolons, it tends to drive out other species, thus be- 
coming dominant in lowland pastures. In Cuba this grass is called “ cafiamazo 
dulce,” “‘ cafiamazo de sabana,” and “ cafiamazo macho.” 
5. Axonopus equitans sp. nov. 
Perennial; culms erect, glabrous, 40 to 60 cm. tall, apparently branching only 
at the base; sheaths broad, compressed, keeled, the lower crowded and equitant, 
villous near the margin and on the collar, those of the stem 2, overlapping; 
ligule a dense row of hairs about 1 mm. long; blades rather stiffly ascending, 
flat, from « folded base, ciliate, rather sparsely villous on the lower surface, or 
the cauline glabrate, rather obtuse, 15 to 20 cm. long, 4 to 10 mm. wide, the 
uppermost 3 to 5 cm. long; racemes about 4, erect or ascending, slender, pubes- 
cent or somewhat villous at base, 7 to 15 cm. long, the rachis 3-angled, scarcely 
0.5 mm. wide, the main axis 3 to 5 cm. long; spikelets nearly sessile, oblong, 
2 mm. long, obtuse, in 2 rows, not crowded, the apex of one not reaching the 
base of the one above on the same side, sometimes not reaching the one on the 
opposite side; second glume rather strongly several-nerved, very minutely silky- 
pubescent at base and in a line down the internerves; sterile lemma equaling 
the second glume, 3-nerved, sparsely villous; fruit about as long as the second 
glume and sterile lemma, chartaceous, yellowish, obscurely pubescent at the tip. 
Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, no. 865560, collected in grass land 
along the Fort George Road, Port of Spain, Trinidad, November 27, 1912, by 
A. 8. Hitchcock (no. 9988). 
€. Axonopus macrostachyus sp. nov. 
Perennial; culms erect, glabrous, branching, 1 to 1.5 meters tall, the cauline 
nodes about 2; sheaths glabrous, keeled but not strongly compressed, the lower 
bladeless; ligule a ciliate membrane less than 1 mm. long; blades flat, stiffly 
erect, those of the innovations conspicuously so, glabrous, scaberulous on the 
margin, abruptly rounded at the apex, as much as 50 cm. long, the uppermost 
about 12 cm. long, 4 to 7 mm. wide; racemes about 12, slender, erect or stiffly 
ascending, 15 to 25 cm. long, the main axis about 12 cm. long, the rachis 3-angled, 
narrow, 0.5 to 0.7 mm. wide, glabrous, scaberulous on the angles, slightly pubes- 
cent or villous at the base; spikelets in two rows, nearly sessile, each reaching 
scarcely to the base of the one on the same side or somewhat more distant, 
oblong-elliptic, acute, 3 mm. long, scarcely 1 mm. wide, whitish or purplish; 
second glume and sterile lemma thin, pointed beyond the fruit, 3-nerved or the 
midnerve faint or suppressed, minutely silky at base and on the margins, some- 
times also in the internerves; fruit oblong, obtuse, 2 mm. long, minutely papil- 
lose-roughened, at maturity yellowish brown. 
Type in the U. 8. National Herbarium, no, 865561, collected in low open ground 
north of Pitch Lake, Trinidad, December 7, 1912, by A. S. Hitchcock (no. 10093). 
Known only from the type collection. 
Y. Axonopus pellitus (Nees). 
Paspalum pellitum Nees; Trin. Gram. Pan. 89. 1826. 
A tall flat-stemmed perennial with broad overlapping hirsute sheaths densely 
hairy on the collar, elongate, rather stiff, sparsely pilose blades, and an elongate 
