HITCHCOCK AND CHASE—GRASSES OF THE WEST INDIES. 313 
long, suberect, the common axis about 1.5 cm. long; spikelets solitary, often 
reddish, 3 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, oblong-elliptic, the glume pilose, the sterile 
lemma glabrous or pilose at the base. 
Sandy savannas, Cuba (Vuelta Abaja and Isle of Pines), Wright 3864 from 
Vuelta Abaja being the type specimen. 
27. Paspalum rupestre Trin. Linnaea 10: 293. 1836. 
A low perennial with delicate simple naked culms arising from a tuft of 
ciliate subinvolute blades not over 2 mm. wide, commonly 3 to 5 mm. long; 
racemes commonly 1.5 to 2 cm. long, the oblong-oval glabrous spikelets 1 mm. 
long. 
Open arid rocky slopes, Cuba (El Yunque) and Porto Rico (Monte Mesa). 
Originally described from a collection made by Poeppig in Cuba; apparently 
rare. Wright’ gives Nees as the author of P. rupestre. 
28. Paspalum leoninum Chase in Hitche. Bot. Gaz. 51: 800. 1911. 
Larger than the preceding, forming dense mats, the slender culms commonly 
20 to 30 cm. long, reclining; blades 2 to 3 mm. wide, flat when fresh, conspicu- 
ously ciliate, often with a waxy luster, more or less involute in drying; racemes 
commonly 3 to 4 cm. long, the spikelets about 1.5 mm. long. 
Open rocky slopes, mostly serpentine, Cuba (Guanabacoa, Campo Florido, 
and Sancti Spiritus) and Porto Rico (Monte Mesa, Monte Alegrillo, and 
Indiera Fria). Described from Cuba, Leén 950 being the type. 
29. Paspalum poiretii Roem. & Schult. Syst. Veg. 2: 878. 1817. 
Paspalum gracile Poir. in Lam. Encycl. Suppl. 4: 313. 1816, not Rudge, 1805. 
Plants cespitose, with tough matted roots; culms usually 15 to 40 ecm. tall, 
simple or rarely branching, very slender but wiry, leaning or spreading, flat- 
tened, more or less twisted and tortuous, glabrous; nodes appressed-pubescent ; 
leaves* mostly crowded toward the base, the lower sheaths overlapping, the 
upper sheath remote, bladeless or nearly so; sheaths hirsute along the margin 
and at the summit, sometimes sparingly so throughout; ligule membranaceous, 
scarcely 0.5 mm. long; blades rather thick, 3 to 10 cm. long, 3 to 5 mm. wide, 
tapering to the base, usually flat when fresh, folded or involute in drying, more 
or less tortuous, sometimes conspicuously so, a few hairs about the ligule, 
otherwise glabrous, or sometimes sparsely pilose; inflorescence long-exserted, 
terminal on the culm or a leaf-bearing branch (not truly axillary) ; racemes 
commonly 1 (sometimes a second, 1 to 1.5 cm. distant), 2 to 4 cm. long, erect 
or falcate; rachis 1 mm. wide, glabrous or minutely strigose, bearing a few 
long hairs at the base; spikelets usually solitary but the second spikelet of the 
pair sometimes developed toward the summit of the raceme; pedicels about 0.8 
mm. long, flattened, glabrous or nearly so; spikelets 1.3 to 1.5 mm. long, 1 to 1.1 
mm. wide, oval, blunt; second glume and sterile lemma covering the fruit, 
3-nerved, appressed-pubescent or the lemma sometimes glabrous; fruit pale. 
Rocky, mostly limestone soil, the Greater Antilles. Originally described from 
Santo Domingo. This species is included in P. rupestre Trin. as listed by Hitch- 
cock? and is the species described under that name by Nash. We have not 
seen the type of P. gracile, of which P. poiretii is a change of name. 
Cuba, Jamaica, Santo Domingo (Azua), and Porto Rico (Aguada and Lares). 
30. Paspalum capillifolium Nash, N. Amer. Fl. 17: 181. 1912. 
A low, densely tufted glabrous perennial with filiform culms and blades, the 
latter about 5 cm. long; raceme solitary, slender, 2 to 4 em. long, the glabrous 
elliptic spikelets about 1.7 mm. long. 
* Anal, Acad. Cienc. Habana 8: 202. 1871. 
*Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 206. 1909. 
*N,. Amer. Fl. 17: 182. 1912. 
