Chase Notes on Genera of Paniceae. I. 189 



with those of Heister and Adanson by emphasizing the " excavations " of 

 the rachis, applies not to Tripsacum but to the grasses so long known as 

 Digitaria, and his pre-Linnaean references lead to P. sanguinale L. 



Antiquum nomen, & characteristicum, reddo plantis nostris, quse adeo 

 vehementer a LINN.ENIS Panicis abludunt, nt nullo modo eo referripossint. 

 Receptaculum Tritici, alternis scrobibus excavatum. Ad eas scrobes appli- 

 cantur flosculi petiolati. Calyx biglumis, lineatus, altera gluma parva, 

 mucronata, altera majori faciei floris respond ente, lineata: ita mucronata, 

 compressa, ovato lanceolata uniflora, locusta oritur. Flos durus, nitens, 

 siccus, convexus inde, hinc complanatus, & linea quasi divisus, non tamen 

 penetrante. Nonquam satis potui distinguere divisionem in duas glumas. 

 In cavea certe undique clausa semen sedet, compressum, planum. 



Under his first species, to which Haller, who evidently opposed such an 

 innovation as a binomial system, applies a polynomial, " LINN. p. 84 " is 

 cited, with Linnaeus' description of P. sanguinale used as a polynomial, the 

 name sanguinale being omitted. The reference is to the 1762 edition of 

 Species Plantarum. For discussion of Digitaria Heister see Hitchcock, Bot. 

 Gaz. 38 : 298, and Nash, Bui. Torr. Bot. Club 25 : 289. 



Panicum sanguinale L. 1753. Sp. PI. 57. " Spicis aggregatis, basi interiore 

 nodosis, flosculis geminis muticis, vaginis foliorum punctatis. * * * 

 Habitat in America, Europe australi." 



The specimen under this name in the Linnaean herbarium is the tradi 

 tional P. sanguinale fide Prof. A. S. Hitchcock who has seen it. The first 

 reference after the description is to Royen Fl. Leyden 55, where, after the 

 polynomial quoted by Linnaeus, Sloan. Hist. 1 : 113, t. 70, f. 3 is cited. The 

 second reference is to Gron. Virg. 154 [error for 134]. Gronovius refers to 

 Clayton n. 457. Linnaeus' reference (Sp. PI. 57) to Sloane 1 : 113 t. 70 f.2 

 is evidently an error. The polynomial and figure cited in Royen applies 

 to P. sanguinale. 



Syntherisma Walt. 1788. Fl. Carol. 76. 



CaL 1-florus, 2-valvis : valvulis planis, acutis interiore minore recta, 

 exteriore lateribus corollam subamplexante. Cor. 2-valvis : valvulis mag- 

 nitudine et figura valvulae majori calycis simillimis. * * * Semen 

 unicum, calyce corollaque persistentibus vestitum. 



The first species is S. pr&cox Walt. "No specimen in [Walter's] her 

 barium. There is not much doubt but this refers to Panicum sanguinale L. 

 (Digitaria sariguinalis), as stated by Elliott and Michaux." Hitchcock, Six 

 teenth Ann. Rept. Mo. Bot. Gard. 44. 



Michaux (1803. Fl. Bor. Am. 1 : 45) includes Syntherisma praecox Walt, 

 as synonym under Digitaria sanguinalis Scop. 



This group has been held to be a genus or reduced to a section of Pani 

 cum according, seemingly, to the weight given its form of inflorescence. 

 Nees, while noting the less indurated and "always pliable" lemma of 

 Trichachne, 'does not seem to have noted that the same is true of the group 

 he placed as section Digitariae of Panicum, nor that the differences from 

 Panicum which he points out for Trichachne do not separate that genus from 

 his section Digitariae. The form of inflorescence does not clearly distinguish 

 this genus from Panicum, since the species known as Panicum Perrolteti 



