288 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HEEBAPJUM. 



18. RHAPHIS Lour/ 



Inflorescence a few-flowered panicle, the racemes reduced to a single joint 

 of the rachis with a sessile perfect spiUelet and 2 pedicellate sterile spike- 

 lets (the latter sometimes obsolete) borne at the ends of slender naked pedun- 

 cles, these disjointing obliquely near the summit, forming a sharp callus below 

 the long-awned spikelets. 



1. Rhaphis pauciflora (Chapm.) Nash in Small, Fl. Southeast. U. S. 67, 1903, 



Andropogon wrightii Munro ; Wright in Sauv. Fl. Cub. 202. 1873, nom, nud^ 



Sorghum pauciflorum Chapm. Bot. Gaz. 3: 20. 1878. 



Chrysopogon pauciflortis Benth. ; Vasey, Grasses U. S. 20. 1883. 



A slender branching annual with flat or folded ciliate blades and a few- 

 flowered panicle with capillary branchlets, the brown spikelets raised on a 

 hairy callus of nearly equal length, the twisted bent awns up to 15 cm. long. 



Sandy pine barrens, Florida and eastern Cuba, the tj^pe locality of S. paud- 

 fiorum being Jacksonville, Florida, and of A. wrightii being Cuba. 



19. THEMEDA Forsk. 



Inflorescence a flabellate cluster of several racemes, each subtended by a 

 leaflike spathe, the entire cluster (or panicle) subtended or partly inclosed 

 by a larger spathe; racemes consisting of 2 approximate pairs of sessile awn- 

 less starainate or neuter spikelets and a single fertile awned spikelet with a 

 pair of sterile pedicellate ones, the rachis disjointing above the pairs of sessile 

 staminate spikelets and forming a pointed callus below the fertile one. 



Sessile spikelets villous; glumes not strongly papillose 1. T. arguens. 



Sessile spikelets not villous ; glumes strongly papillose, the papillae bearing long 

 stifE hairs 2. T. quadrivalvis. 



1. Themeda arguens (L.) Hack, in DC. Monogr. Phan. 6: 657. 1889. 



Christmas gkass- 



Stipa arguens L. Sp. Fl. ed. 2. 117. 1762. 



An ascending annual with compressed branching culms, flat scabrous blades,, 

 and V-shaped clusters of long-awned spikelets. 



Introduced in Jamaica (Morant Bay and Troy) ; native of Asia. Originally 

 described from India. 



2. Themeda quadrivalvis (L.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 2: 794. 1891. 



Kangaeoo grass. 



Andropogon quadrivalvis L. Syst. Veg. ed. 13. 758. 1774. 



Anthistiria ciliata L. f. Suppl. 113. 1781. 



Themeda ciliata Hack, in DC. Monogr. Phan. 6: 664. 1889. 



Usually taller than the preceding with an elongate inflorescence of more 

 numerous and smaller clusters of spikelets. Exceedingly variable in the size 

 of the subtending spathes. 



Introduced in Martinique and Barbados ; native of the East Indies. Origi- 

 nally described from India. 



20. ANTHEPHORA Schreb. 



Spikelets in clusters of 4, the indurate first glumes united at base, forming 

 a pitcher-shaped pseudo-involucre, the clusters subsessile and erect on a slender 

 flexuous continuous axis. 



^The name Rhapis L. f. ; Ait. Hort. Kew. 3: 473. 1789, having a different deri- 

 vation and pronunciation should not invalidate Rhaphis Lour. The latter name 

 should replace Chrysopogon Trin. Fund. Agrost. 187. 1820. 



