216 NORTH AMERICAN FLORA [Volume 17 



15. Panicum texanum Buckl. Prel. Rep. Geol. & Agr. Surv. Tex. App. 



3. 1866. 



Plants erect or ascending, often decumbent and rooting at the lower nodes, branching 

 from the base and commonly from the lower and middle nodes; culms stout, 50-150 cm. high, 

 or in robust specimens as much as 3 meters high, softly pubescent at least below the nodes and 

 below the panicles; leaf-sheaths softly pubescent, often papillose, densely ciliate, the lower 

 shorter than the internodes, the upper usually overlapping; ligule about 1 mm, long; blades 

 ascending or spreading, 8-20 cm. long, 7-15 mm. wide, rounded at the base, softly pubescent 

 on both surfaces, often finely papillose; panicles finally exserted, 8-20 cm. long, 1-3 cm. wide, 

 the main axis much exceeding the erect branches, the axes densely clothed with short pubescence 

 having long, stiff hairs intermixed, the short-pediceled spikelets somewhat crowded; spikelets 

 5-6 mm. long, about 2 mm. wide, fusiform, pointed, short-attenuate at base, pilose; first glume 

 clasping, more than half the length of the spikelet, acute, 3-5-nerved; second glume and sterile 

 lemma exceeding the fruit, 5-nerved, often obscurely reticulate; fruit 3.7-3.8 mm. long, about 



■ 



2 mm. wide, elliptic, apiculate. 



Type I/OCAlity: Austin, Texas. 

 Distribution: Texas and northern Mexico. 



Illustrations : Vasey, Agr. Grasses U. S. pi. 7; ed. 2. pi. 10; Bull. U. S. Dep. Agr. Agrost. 7: 

 /. 44; 14: /. 67; 15: /. 8; Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 15: /. 28. 



16. Panicum Vaseyanum Scribn. ; Beal, Grasses N. Am. 2: 140. 



1896. 



i 



Plants spreading, branching at base and at the lower and middle nodes, glabrous through- 

 out; culms 50-70 cm. long, somewhat compressed; leaf-sheaths shorter than the elongate in- 

 ternodes; ligule 1-2 mm. long; blades 5-20 cm. long, 3-7 mm. wide, linear, scarcely narrowed at 

 the folded or enveloping base; panicles terminal and from the axils of the upper leaves of the 

 main culms and large branches, narrow, 4-7 cm. long, less than 1 cm. wide, partially included, 

 equaled or exceeded by the erect uppermost blade; spikelets short-pediceled, narrowly ovate, 

 2.5 mm. long, 1.1-1.2 mm. wide, subacute; first glume about one fifth the length of the spikelet, 

 truncate or obtuse; second glume slightly shorter than the sterile lemma, both 7-nerved, the 

 palea of the sterile floret obsolete; fruit 2.1 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, elliptic, apiculate. 



Type locality: Base of Sierra Madre, Chihuahua. 

 Distribution: Chihuahua to Jalisco. 

 Illustration: Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 15: /. 30. 



17. Panicum dichotomiflorum Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 48. 1803. 



Panicum miliaceum Walt. Fl. Car. 72. 1788. Not P. miliaceum L. 1753. 



Panicum geniculatum Muhl. Cat. 9. 1813; Descr. Gram. 123, 1817. 



Panicum multiflorum Poir. in I^am. Encyc. Suppl. 4: 282. 1816. 



Panicum brachiatum Bosc; Spreng. Syst. 1 : 321. 1825. Not P. brachiatum Poir. 1816. 



Panicum EllioUii Trin.; Nees, Agrost. Bras. 170, as synonym. 1829. 



Panicum retrofr actum Delile; Desv. Opusc. 96. 1831. 



Panicum proliferum pilosum Griseb. Cat. PL Cub. 232. 1866. 



Panicum proliferum geniculatum Wood, Bot. & FL ed. 1871. 392, 1871. 



Panicum amplectans Chapm. Bot. Gaz. 3: 20. 1878. 



Panicum Francavillanum Fourn. Mex. PL Gram. 25. 1886.* 



Plants usually freely branching, ascending or spreading from a geniculate base, or some- 

 times erect, usually smooth throughout, or in tropical forms more or less pubescent; culms 

 somewhat compressed, often thick and succulent, drying furrowed, usually 50-100 cm. long, 

 in robust specimens as much as 2 meters long, the nodes smooth, at least the lower swollen; 

 leaf -sheaths often compressed, usually longer than the internodes, ciliate on the margin toward 

 the summit; ligule 1-2 mm. long; blades flat or in small specimens sometimes folded, glabrous, 

 or sparsely pilose above, 10-50 cm. long, 3-20 mm. wide, at base about as wide as the sheath, the 

 white midnerve usually prominent; panicles terminal and axillary, included at base or tardily 

 short-exserted, many-flowered, 10-40 cm. long or more, the main branches ascending, or finally 



♦Hitherto, in this volume, the date 1881 has been assigned to Fourn. Mex. PI. Gram.; the 

 present author's reasons for preferring 1886 have been explained in Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 15: 49 

 (footnote). 1910. [The question is more fully discussed by Griffiths, who accepts 1881, in Contr. 

 U. S. Nat. Herb. 14: 350, 351 (footnote). 1912.] 



