224 Rhodora [Octobsb 



tion. More recently, further perplexity has been added to the group 

 for those who are not intensive specialists on Panicum by the publica- 

 tion of P. languidum Hitchc. & Chase. The type collection amis a 

 clump growing in dry woods at South Berwick, Maine, with spike- 

 lets unusually large (1.8-2.1 mm. long) but otherwise not different 

 from lax shade-forms of P. kuackucae, the individuals of rich or 

 shaded habitats separated by Hitchcock & Chase as /'. kuackucae, 

 var. silvicola. The authors of P. languidum eite five collections: 

 South Berwick, Maine, Fernald, Purlin (from the same clump); 

 Island Falls, Maine, Fernald; Mt. Desert Island, Fernald; Ashburn- 

 ham, Massachusetts, Harris; and Platte Clove, New York, William- 

 son. 



I have not seen the New York material, but the South Berwick 

 clump was broken into several full-sized sheets, three of which are 

 before me. Their spikelets range from 1.8-2.1 nun. long (not merely 

 2 mm. as originally described) and the panicle is, as described by 

 Hitchcock & Chase, "loosely flowered, the very flexuous branches 

 finally spreading or drooping . . . the axis and branches sparsely 

 long-pilose." The inflorescence is thus like the theoretical inflores- 

 cence of P. imjilicatum but looser and with longer spikelets or quite 

 like that of many specimens determined by Hitchcock & Chase as 

 /'. kuackucae, var. silvicola, a plant which they describe as having 

 spikelets 1 .6-1.8 mm. long. The leaves of the South Berwick material 

 are inseparable from those of the latter plant. The other Maine 

 specimens of /'. languidum arc like the type as are more recent col- 

 lections from Massachusetts, but the Harris collection from Ash- 

 burnham, included with the original 7*. languidum, is quite different, 

 having narrowly ellipsoid panicles with strongly spreading-aseending 

 blanches, the axis smooth and the sheaths pilose with ascending 

 (not wide-spreading) hairs. This collection is represented by three 

 sheets, thoroughly uniform and clearly a shade state of P. subrillosniu 

 Ashe. With the latter species eliminated from the complex, P. 

 languid)!))! is left as a series of specimens which iu every character 

 merge directly into /'. huachucae. 



The original of /'. Lindheimeri was a plant with the axis of the 

 panicle glabrous and with the lower internodes and sheaths papillose- 

 hirsute, the upper glabrous, and Hitchcock & Chase place it in their 

 section Spreta because it has "Sheaths glabrous or only the lower- 

 most sometimes pubescent." /'. huachucae, on the other hand, and 



