HITCHCOCK AND CHASE—GRASSES OF THE WEST INDIES. 311 
specimen of Wright 3843 in herbarium of the Academia de Ciencias de la 
Habana there is a small shoot from one of the submerged nodes, indicating a 
stoloniferous habit. This is the species doubtfully referred to P. elatum Rich. 
by Hitchcock? and described under that name by Nash.” Paspalum elatum is 
described as having spikelets twice as wide as the rachis and a first glume half 
as long as the spikelet on one of the pair. It must be, us Doell suggests, allied 
to Panicum monostachyum (Paspalum pilosun). 
17. Paspalum melanospermum Desv. in Poir. in Lam. Encycl. Suppl. 4: 315. 
1816. 
An erect nearly glabrous annual, 30 to 40 cm. tall; culms compressed, branch- 
ing, commonly purplish; sheaths thin, loose, with a hyaline shining golden 
brown margin; blades flat, lax with a very nurrow pale shining margin; 
racemes 2 or 3, the lateral arcuate-spreading, about 2 cin. below the erect or 
curved terminal one; rachis about 1.5 mm. wide; spikelets solitary or paired, 
rusty drab, strongly plano-convex, broadly obovate, 2 to 2.2 mm. long, the glume 
and sterile lemme thin; fruit dark brown, shining. 
Moist clay banks and slopes, Florida and the West Indies to Brazil. Origi- 
nally described from Cayenne, North American specimens have been referred 
to P. scrobiculatum L., a species described from India. This is the species listed 
as P. boscianum Fliigge by Nash in the Grasses of Porto Rico.’ 
Porto Rico (Monte Mesa, Monte Alegrillo, and Sierra de Luquillo). 
18. Paspalum convexum Humb. & Bonpl. in Fliigge, Monogr. Pasp. 175. 1810. 
Paspalum hemicryptum Wright, Anal. Acad. Cienc. Habana 8: 204. 1871. 
A tufted leafy annual, the spreading culms usually 20 to 30 cm. long, com- 
monly bearing short flowering branches from all the upper nodes; blades flat, 
glabrous to conspicuously pilose; racemes mostly 2 to 4, short and thick, the 
heavy hemispheric spikelets 2.4 to 2.8 mm. long, the base of the short panicle 
often included. An exceedingly variable species; Wright 3847 from El Salado, 
Cuba, the type of P. hemicryptum, has pilose blades and spikelets 2.4 mm. long. 
Open ground, fields, and waste places, Central Mexico to Costa Rica; also in 
Cuba (El Salado) and Trinidad (La Brea). Paspalum converum was de- 
scribed from Mexico. 
19. Paspalum fimbriatum H. B. K. Noy. Gen. & Sp. 1: 93. 1816. 
An erect or ascending annual, 30 to 100 cm..tall, with ciliate sheaths, lax 
blades, and few to several ascending racemes, the imbricate spikelets with a 
broad flat lacerate corky wing margin ciliate on the edge. 
Roadsides and waste places, West Indies and northern South America. 
Originally described from Colombia. 
Bahamas (Andros, New Providence, Eleuthera), Jamaica, Porto Rico, St. 
Croix, Antigua, Montserrat, Dominica, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Barbados, and 
Trinidad. 
20. Paspalum neesii Kunth, Rév. Gram, 1: 25. 1829. 
Paspalum angustifolium Nees, Agrost. Bras. 64. 1829, not Le Conte, 1820, nor 
Nees, 1826. 
An erect tufted perennial with slender culms 40 to 100 cm, tall, linear elongate 
firm involute or folded blades, and a long-exserted inflorescence of 2 suberect 
racemes, 3 to 5 cm. long, the common axis about 1 cm. long; rachis very slender ; 
spikelets solitary, elliptic, 4 to 4.5 mm. long, about 1.7 mm, wide. 
*Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb, 12: 202. 1909. 
*N. Amer. Fl. 17: 188. 1912. 
* Bull. Torrey Club 30: 376, 1903. 
