22 POACEAE. 



long, 8-20 mm. wide, glabrous, or sometimes eiliate at the base, abruptly 

 acuminate, rough-margined ; panicles 6-15 cm. long, composed of many spike- 

 like racemes; spikelets short-stalked, 3-4 mm. long, 1.5-1.8 mm. wide, fusiform; 

 first scale acute, glabrous, 5-nerved, about one-third as long as the whole spike- 

 let; second and third scales 5-7-nerved, hispid at least above, rarely glabrous. 



New Providence and Anguilla Isles : Florida ; Cuba to Porto Rico, Tortola 

 and Martinique ; Jamaica. LOOSE PANIC-GRASS. 



3. Panicum fasciculatum Sw. Prodr. 22. 1788. 



Panicum fitscum Sw. Prodr. 23. 1788. 



Panicum flavescens Sw. Prodr. 23. 1788. 



Panicum paniculatum Nash, Bull. Torr. Club 30: 381. 1903. 



Perennial ; culms glabrous or somewhat pubescent above, slender or rather 

 stout, erect, spreading or ascending, 0.3-1 m. long. Leaves flat, 3 dm. long or 

 less, 0.6-2 cm. wide, glabrous or more or less pubescent, the sheaths sometimes 

 pilose or hispid; panicles 5-15 cm. long, the branches raceme-like, ascending; 

 spikelets commonly approximate, short-stalked, brown, 2-2.5 mm. long, glabrous, 

 the outer scales reticulate-veined, the fourth scale rugose. 



Waste places. Grand Turk Island : southern Florida and Texas ; the West Indies 

 and tropical continental America. BROWN PANIC-GRASS. 



4. Panicum barbinode Trin. Mem. Acad. St. Petersb. VI. Sci. Xat. 1: 256. 



1834. 



Sterile culms 1-2 m. long, rooting at the nodes, the fertile ones erect, 

 6-10 dm. tall or more, the nodes densely barbed; leaf -sheaths often overlapping, 

 papillose-hirsute; blades 1-3 dm. long, glabrous or pubescent, 6-16 mm. wide; 

 panicle 1.5-2 dm. long, its branches spreading or ascending; spikelets about 

 3 mm. long, glabrous. 



New Providence and Acklin's Island : Bermuda ; Florida to Texas : the West 

 Indies and tropical America and Old World tropics. Has been confused with P. 

 molle Sw. PARA GRASS. 



5. Panicum maximum Jacq. Ic. PI. Ear. 1: 2, pi. 13. 1781-6. 



Culm 1-2 m. tall or more, leafy; leaf-sheaths overlapping, glabrous, or 

 tuberculate-pubescent; blades elongated, 1-4 cm. wide, glabrous; panicle 3-6 

 dm. long, its branches erect or nearly s-o, very long; spikelets glabrous, 3-4 mm. 

 long, the fourth scale transversely rugose. 



In swales and along swamps, New Providence, Eleuthera, Fortune Island, Turks 

 Islands, and Inagua : Bermuda : Georgia and Florida to Texas ; the West Indies 

 and continental America. Referred by Coker to P. elepJiantipcs Nees. GUINEA 

 GRASS. 



6. Panicum distantiflorum A. Eich. in Sagra, Hist. Cuba 11: 304. 1850. 



Culms glabrous, tufted, slender, wiry, branched, 6-8 dm. high. Sheaths 

 compressed; leaf -blades 1-3 dm. long, only 1 or 2 mm. wide, involute in drying; 

 panicles narrow, 2-7 cm. long, their branches nearly erect; spikelets elliptic, 

 glabrous, acute, about 1.5 mm. long; first scale about one-half as long as the 

 whole spikelet, 5-nerved, acute; second scale obtuse, about two-thirds as long 

 as the fruit. 



Srrub-lands, Long Island and Inagua : Cuba ; Hispaniola ; Curacao. NARROW 

 PANIC-GRASS. 



7 Panicum Chapman! Vasey, Bull. Torrey Club 11: 61. 1884. 



Culms glabrous or nearly so, tufted, slender, 3-10 dm. high, simple, or 

 sometimes branched below. Leaves 2-4 dm. long, 4-6 mm. wide, acuminate, 

 the sheaths sparingly eiliate; panicles 3 dm. long or less, composed of sessile 

 1-sided spike-like racemes of 3-12 spikelets, the flexuous rachis terminated by a 



