HITCHCOCK AND CHASE—GRASSES OF THE WEST INDIES. 359 
stripe of dense short retrorse pubescence, broadening toward the summit, the 
sterile culms naked below and bearing 5 io 7 crowded leaves at the summit, the 
middle internodes elongate, the upper and lower reduced; nodes prominent, 
puberulent; sheaths not over 15 mm. long, the lower and those of the fertile 
culms with minute blades or sometimes bladeless, retrorsely puberulent along 
the margin and toward the summit, the upper overlapping ones more or less 
hirsute and with a ring of stiff hairs at the summit; ligule obsolete; blades (in 
dried specimens) grayish green, paler beneath, rather firm, flat, 3 to 7 cm. long, 
6 to 12 mm. wide, lanceolate, rounded at the base, the apex acute, glabrous on 
the upper surface or with a few scattered hairs, sparsely hispid beneath, and 
bearing stiff hairs on the very short petiole; staminate inflorescence consisting 
of small spikelike panicles of 2 to 5 spikelets borne in the upper axils and at 
the ends of the leafy culms, the lateral spikelets staminate, subsessile, about 
3 mm. long, 0.8 mm. wide, acuminate, minutely puberulent, strongly nerved, the 
terminal spikelets in appearance like the pistillate ones, 7 to 8 mm. long, on 
short obconic pedicels, neutral or with a rudimentary pistil; pistillate inflo- 
rescence consisting of small spikelike panicles of 2 or 3 fertile spikelets on short 
thickened pedicels and a few more or less rudimentary subsessile staminate 
ones borne at the ends and in the upper slightly inflated sheaths of low slender 
naked culms arising from the base; fertile spikelets on short thickened pedicels, 
7 to 8 mm. long, 2 mm. wide, subterete, oblong-elliptic; glume and sterile lemma 
subequal, puberulent, strongly nerved, acuminate into short setaceous scabrous 
tips about 1 mm. long; fruit 6.5 mm. long, about 1.5 mm. wide, elliptic, apicu- 
late, becoming lead-colored at maturity, clothed with soft silky appressed hairs, 
a glabrous stripe down the back, the margins of the lemma nearly meeting over 
the palea. 
Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, no. 865556, collected in a rocky ravine, 
near Caparo, Trinidad, September 18, 1908, by W. KE. Broadway (no. 2375). 
“ A dwarf grass in sandy soil on slopes under the shade of large forest trees.” 
Raddia biformis differs from all the known species of the genus in having 
culms of two forms, the one with an incompletely staminate, the other with an 
incompletely pistilate inflorescence, and further in having pubescent fruits. 
Shady forest floors, Trinidad (Tabaquite, Hitchcock 10127, St. Anns, Trin. 
Bot. Gard. Herb. 5892). 
2, Raddia urbaniana sp. nov. 
Perennial; culms cespitose (the tufts sometimes connected by a slender 
rhizome), 20 to 45 em. high, slender, ascending from more or less geniculate 
lower nodes, striate-sulcate, bearing a narrow stripe of dense short retrorse 
pubescence, otherwise glabrous, naked below, with distant nearly bladeless 
sheaths, toward the summit bearing 12 to 24 approximate leaves with over- 
lapping sheaths and distichous spreading blades; sheaths not over 1.5 cm. long, 
hispidulous along the overlapping margin; ligule minute, fimbriate; blades (in 
dried specimens) grayish green, thin but firm, flat, glabrous, 2 to 3.5 cm. long, 
4 to 8 mm. wide, oblong-lamceolate, rounded at both ends, bearing a scabrous 
mucronate tip 0.5 mm. long, the petiole less than 1 mm. long; staminate 
panicles several to many from the axils of the upper sheaths, narrow, few- 
flowered, the axis and pedicels angled, scabrous, the spikelets 5 to 6 mm. long, 
acuminate-pointed ; pistillate panicles one or two from the middle nodes, bear- 
ing 2 to 5 spikelets on short clavate pedicels; spikelets lanceolate, the glume 
8 mm. long, much exceeding the fruit, the sterile lemma 5 mm. long, both 
acuminate-setaceous; fruit 4 mm. long, about 1 mm. wide, bluntly acuminate, 
white, glabrous. 
Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, no. 865554, collected in the center 
of the island of Tobago, “abundant on the floor of deep forest on mountain,” 
