94 Rhodora [May 
has been taken up as appearing to afford the best solution of a diffi- 
culty which the authors had to meet. 
Hoping that the efforts here presented will be of some service to 
our New England friends, it is offered to them with the plea that they 
will exercise a measure of charity towards the imperfections which 
may appear. 
Panicum Linn. Sp. Pl. 55. 1753. 
Spikelets 1-flowered or sometimes with a staminate flower below 
the hermaphrodite terminal one, in spikes, racemes, or panicles. 
Glumes four, the first usually much shorter than the others, very 
rarely wanting (some species of the section Syatherisma); second 
glume empty, equaling or somewhat shorter than the third, which 
is empty or has a palea or even a staminate flower in its axil; fourth 
glume usually smooth and shining, coriaceous, much firmer in tex- 
ture than the others, Palea similar in texture to its glume and 
closely embraced by it. Grain inclosed within the hardened fruit- 
ing glume and palea, free — Annuals or perennials, varying greatly in 
habit of growth, foliage and inflorescence. 
Species about 400, throughout the tropical and subtropical 
regions of both hemispheres, a few only in the temperate regions. 
Several species are cosmopolitan and appear as weeds throughout 
all civilized countries. About 150 species and varieties are now 
recognized as occurring within the United States, while 35 species 
and s varieties and forms are recorded in the present paper, as 
growing in New England. 
For convenience in classification the following sections are 
recognized : 
§ I. SvvTHERISMA Walt. Fl. Carol 76. 1788. (as a genus) 
(Digitaria Scop. Fl. Carn. ed. 2, 2: 52. 1772, not Heist. 1763.) 
Spikelets borne in pairs, one sessile, and one pedicellate, in simple, 
slender, one-sided racemes, which are digitate or fasiculate at the 
summit of the culm ; glumes four, sometimes three, by suppression 
of the first one. This section is intermediate between Panicum 
and Paspalum (Page 98). 
1. P. filiforme Linn. 3. P. humifusum ( Pers.) Kth. 
2. P.sanguinale Linn. 
