1919) Fernald,— Panicum $ Capillaria Lil 
On the whole, typical P. capillare is distinguished by its usually 
purplish panicle, with the crowded branches included at base and 
strongly ascending until complete maturity when the branches be- 
come divaricately spreading; in P. barbipulvinatum the commonly 
less purple panicle is soon exserted and its branches quickly divaricate. 
In P. capillare the spikelets are usually plumper, those of P. barbi- 
pulvinatum being more lance-attenuate, but this, like the habit and 
the length of the spikelet, is not constant. The most definite char- 
acter seems to be in the length of the pedicels. In typical P. capillare 
the spikelets are mostly on long pedicels; in P. barbipulvinatum only 
the terminal spikelet of each branchlet is obviously pedicelled, the 
lateral spikelets being very short-pedicelled or even subsessile. This 
character, however, like the others, is not constant, and P. barbi- 
pulvinatum seems to the writer, as it has to Rydberg, much better 
treated as a variety of P. capillare than as a distinct species. As a 
variety the plant should be called P. capillare, var. occidentale Ryd- 
berg, Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. iii. 186 (1895), Rydberg’s type-num- 
ber (1788) from Grant Co., Nebraska, being a close match for the 
type-number (Rydberg & Bessey, no. 3544) of P. barbipulvinatum. 
As understood by the writer the New England species of Panicum 
§ Capillaria may be distinguished as follows: | 
Pulvini hispid. 
Spikelets all or nearly all long-pedicelled, 2-3 mm. long: panicle tardily 
exserted, its lower branches mostly included during anthesis. 
P. capillare. 
Spikelets subsessile or only short-pedicelled along the ultimate branchlets: 
panicle exserted in anthesis. 
Primary panicle (except in obviously starved individuals) 1.5-3 dm. long: 
- spikelets 2.5-3.3 mm. long, attenuate at tip 
P. capillare, var. occidentale. 
Primary panicle 0.4-1.8 dm. long: spikelets 1.7-2 mm. long, merely 
_ acute or short-aeuminate.......... eee P. philadelphicum. 
Pulvini glabrous or merely ciliate at tip.................. P. Tuckermant. 
P. cAPILLARE L. Sp. Pl. i. 58 (1753); Hitchcock & Chase, Contrib. 
U. S. Nat. Herb. xv. 60 (1910), in large part. P. capillare, var. 
agreste Gattinger, Tenn. Fl. 94 (1887).— P. capillare, var. vulgaris 
Scribn. Grasses Tenn. pt. 2, 44 (1894).— Dry open soil, sandy fields, 
roadsides and waste places, common in southern New England, 
extending locally north to Windsor Co., Vermont, and Cumberland 
and Hancock Cos., Maine. ; 
Var. OCCIDENTALE Rydberg, Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. iii. 186 
(1895). P. capillare brevifolium Vasey in Rydberg & Shear, U. S. 
Dept. Agric. Bull. no. 5, 21 (1897). P. barbipulvinatum Nash in 
