HITCHCOCK AND CHASE GRASSES OP THE WEST INDIES. 311 



specimen of Wright 3843 in herbarium of the Academia de Ciencias de la 

 Habana there is a small shoot from one of the submerged nodes, indicating a 

 stoloniferous habit. This is the species doubtfully referred to P. elatum Rich, 

 by Hitchcock ' and described under that name by Nash.' Paspalum elatum is 

 described as having spikelets twice as wide as the rachis and a first glume half 

 as long as the spikelet on one of the pair. It must be, as Doell suggests, allied 

 to Panicum monostachyum {Paspaluvi pilosum). 



17. Paspalum m^elanosperm^um Desv. in Poir. in Lam. Encycl. Suppl. 4: 315. 

 1816. 



An erect nearly glabrous annual, 30 to 40 cm. tall ; culms compressed, branch- 

 ing, commonly purplish; sheaths thin, loose, with a hyaline shining golden 

 brown margin ; blades Hat, lax with a very narrow pale shining margin ; 

 racemes 2 or 3, the lateral arcuate-spreading, about 2 cm. below the erect or 

 curved terminal one ; rachis about 1.5 mm. wide ; spikelets solitary or paired, 

 Tusty drab, strongly plano-convex, broadly obovate, 2 to 2.2 mm. long, the glume 

 and sterile lemma thin; fruit dark brown, shining. 



Moist clay banks and slopes, Florida and the West Indies to Brazil. Origi- 

 nally described from Cayenne. North American specimens have been referred 

 to P. scrobiculatum L., a species described from India. This is the species listed 

 as P. boscianum Fliigge by Nash in the Grasses of Porto Rico.* 



Porto Rico (Monte Mesa, Monte Alegrillo, and Sierra de Luquillo). 



18. Paspalum convexum Humb. & Bonpl. in Fliigge, Monogr. Pasp. 175. 1810. 

 Paspalum. hemicryptum Wright, Anal. Acad. Cienc. Habana 8: 204. 1871. 



A tufted leafy annual, the spreading culms usually 20 to 30 cm. long, com- 

 monly bearing short flowering branches from all the upper nodes; blades flat, 

 glabrous to conspicuously pilose ; racemes mostly ^2 to 4, short and thick, the 

 heavy hemispheric spikelets 2.4 to 2.8 mm. long, the base of the short panicle 

 often included. An exceedingly variable species; Wright 3847 from El Salado, 

 Cuba, the type of P. hemicryptum, has pilose blades and spikelets 2.4 mm. long. 



Open ground, field.?, and waste places. Central Mexico to Costa Rica; also in 

 Cuba (El Salado) and Trinidad (La Brea). Paspalum convexum was de- 

 scribed from Mexico. 



19. Paspalum fimbriatum H. B. K. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 1: 93. 1816. 



An erect or ascending annual, 30 to 100 cm. tall, with ciliate sheaths, lax 

 blades, and few to several ascending racemes, the imbricate spikelets with a 

 broad flat lacerate corky wing margin ciliate on the edge. 



Roadsides and waste places. West Indies and norrhern South America. 

 Originally described from Colombia. 



Bahamas (Andros, New Providence, Eleuthera), Jamaica, Porto Rico, St. 

 Croix, Antigua, Montserrat, Dominica, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Barbados, and 

 Trinidad. 



20. Paspalum neesii Kunth, Rev. Gram. 1 : 25. 1829. 



Paspalum angustifolium Nees, Agrost. Bras. 64. 1829, not Le Conte, 1820, nor 

 Nees, 1826. 



An erect tufted perennial with slender culms 40 to 100 cm. tall, linear elongate 

 firm involute cff folded blades, and a long-exserted inflorescence of 2 suberect 

 racemes, 3 to 5 cm. long, the common axis about 1 cm. long ; rachis very slender ; 

 spikelets solitary, elliptic, 4 to 4.5 mm. long, about 1.7 mm. wide. 



'Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12:202. 1909. 

 *N. Amer. Fl. 17: 188. 1912. 

 "BuU. Torrey Club 30: 376. 1903. 



