HITCHCOCK AND CHASE GRASSES OF THE WEST INDIES. 301 



node. This species is exceedingly variable in habit ; in dry ground it sometimes 

 has blades not over 2 or 3 mm. wide. 



Moist grass land, southern United States to Argentina ; also in the warmer 

 parts of the Old World. Originally described from Jamaica. Paspalum plati- 

 caulon was described from Porto Rico, and P. filostachyum from the Antilles. 



This species is an important pasture grass throughout the West Indies. 

 Readily propagating by stolons, it tends to drive out other species, thus be- 

 coming dominant in lowland pastures. In Cuba this grass is called " cauamazo 

 dulce," " canamazo de sabana," and " canamazo macho." 



5. Axonopus equitans sp. nov. 



Perennial : culms erect, glabrous, 40 to 60 cm. tall, apparently branching only 

 at the base ; sheaths broad, compressed, keeled, the lower crowded and equitant, 

 villous near the margin and on the collar, those of the stem 2, overlapping ; 

 Ilgule a dense row of hairs about 1 mm. long; blades rather stiffly ascending, 

 flat, from a folded base, ciliate, rather sparsely villous on the lower surface, or 

 the cauline glabrate, rather obtuse, 15 to 20 cm. long, 4 to 10 mm. wide, the 

 uppermost 3 to 5 cm. long ; racemes about 4, erect or ascending, slender, pubes- 

 cent or somewhat villous at base, 7 to 15 cm. long, the rachis 3-angled, scarcely 

 0.5 mm. wide, the main axis 3 to 5 cm. long ; spikelets nearly sessile, oblong, 

 2 mm. long, obtuse, in 2 rows, not crowded, the apex of one not reaching the 

 base of the one above on the same side, sometimes not reaching the one on the 

 opposite side ; second glume rather strongly several-nerved, very minutely silky- 

 pubescent at base and in a line down the internerves; sterile lemma equaling 

 the second glume, 3-nerved. sparsely villous ; fruit about as long as the second 

 glume and sterile lemma, chartaceous, yellowish, obscurely pubescent at the tip. 



Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, no. 865560, collected in grass land 

 along the Fort George Road, Port of Spain, Trinidad, November 27, 1912, by 

 A. S. Hitchcock (no. 9988). 



6. Axonopus macrostachyus sp. nov. 



Perennial ; culms erect, glabrous, branching, 1 to 1.5 meters tall, the cauline 

 nodes about 2 ; sheaths glabrous, keeled but not strongly compressed, the lower 

 bladeless ; ligule a ciliate membrane less than 1 mm. long ; blades flat, stiffly 

 erect, those of the innovations conspicuously so, glabrous, scaberulous on the 

 margin, abruptly rounded at the apex, as much as 50 cm. long, the uppermost 

 about 12 cm. long, 4 to 7 mm. wide ; racemes about 12, slender, erect or stiffly 

 ascending, 15 to 25 cm. long, the main axis about 12 cm. long, the rachis 3-angled, 

 narrow, 0.5 to 0.7 mm. wide, glabrous, scaberulous on the angles, slightly pubes- 

 cent or villous at the base ; spikelets in two rows, nearly sessile, each reaching 

 scarcely to the base of the one on the same side or somewhat more distant, 

 oblong-elliptic, acute, 3 mm. long, scarcely 1 mm. wide, whitish or purplish; 

 second glume and sterile lemma thin, pointed beyond the fruit, 3-nerved or the 

 midnerve faint or suppressed, minutely silky at base and on the margins, some- 

 times also in the internerves ; fruit oblong, obtuse, 2 mm. long, minutely papil- 

 lose-roughened, at maturity yellowish brown. 



Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, no. 865561, collected in low open ground 

 north of Pitch Lake, Trinidad, December 7, 1912, by A. S. Hitchcock (no. 10093). 



Known only from the type collection. 



7. Axonopus pellitus (Nees). 



Paspalum pellihim Nees; Trin. Gram. Pan. 89. 1826. 



A tall flat-stemmed perennial with broad overlapping hirsute sheaths densely 

 hairy on the collar, elongate, rather stiff, sparsely pilose blades, and an elongate 



