HITCHCOCK AND CHASE GRASSES OP THE WEST INDIES. 313 



long, suberect, the common axis about 1.5 cm. long; spikelets solitary, often 

 reddish, 3 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, oblong-elliptic, the glume pilose, the sterile 

 lemma glabrous or pilose at the base. 



Sandy savannas, Cuba (Vuelta Abaja and Isle of Pines), Wright 3864 from 

 Vuelta Abaja being the type specimen. 



27. Paspalum rupestre Trin. Linnaea 10: 293. 1836. 



A low perennial with delicate simple naked culms arising from a tuft of 

 ciliate subinvolute blades not over 2 mm. wide, commonly 3 to 5 mm. long; 

 racemes commonly 1.5 to 2 cm. long, the oblong-oval glabrous spikelets 1 mm. 

 long. 



Open arid rocky slopes, Cuba (El Yunque) and Porto Rico (Monte Mesa). 

 Originally described from a collection made by Poeppig in Cuba ; apparently 

 rare. Wright ^ gives Nees as the author of P. rupestre. 



28. Paspalum leoninum Chase in Hitchc. Bot. Gaz. 51: 300. 1911. 



Larger than the preceding, forming dense mats, the slender culms commonly 

 20 to 30 cm. long, reclining ; blades 2 to 3 mm. wide, flat when fresh, conspicu- 

 ously ciliate, often with a waxy luster, more or less involute in drying ; racemes 

 commonly 3 to 4 cm. long, the spikelets about 1.5 mm. long. 



Open rocky slopes, mostly serpentine, Cuba (Guanabacoa, Campo Florido, 

 and Sancti Spiritus) and Porto Rico (Monte Mesa, Monte Alegrillo, and 

 Indiera Fria). Described from Cuba, Ledn 950 being the type. 



29. Paspalum poiretii Roem. & Schult. Syst. Veg. 2: 878. 1817. 



Paspalum gracile Poir. in Lam. Encycl. Suppl. 4: 313. 1816, not Rudge, 1805. 



Plants cespitose, with tough matted roots ; culms usually 15 to 40 cm. tall, 

 simple or rarely branching, very slender but wiry, leaning or spreading, flat- 

 tened, more or less twisted and tortuous, glabrous ; nodes appressed-pubescent ; 

 leaves mostly crowded toward the base, the lower sheaths overlapping, the 

 upper sheath remote, bladeless or nearly so ; sheaths hirsute along the margin 

 and at the summit, sometimes sparingly so throughout ; ligule membranaceous, 

 scarcely 0.5 mm. long ; blades rather thick, 3 to 10 cm. long, 3 to 5 mm. wide, 

 tapering to the base, usually flat when fresh, folded or involute in drying, more 

 or less tortuous, sometimes conspicuously so, a few hairs about the ligule, 

 otherwise glabrous, or sometimes sparsely pilose ; inflorescence long-exserted, 

 terminal on the culm or a leaf -bearing branch (not truly axillary) ; racemes 

 commonly 1 (sometimes a second, 1 to 1.5 cm. distant), 2 to 4 cm. long, erect 

 or falcate ; rachis 1 mm. wide, glabrous or minutely strigose, bearing a few 

 long hairs at the base ; spikelets usually solitary but the second spikelet of the 

 pair sometimes developed toward the summit of the raceme ; pedicels about O.S 

 mm. long, flattened, glabrous or nearly so ; spikelets 1.3 to 1.5 mm. long, 1 to 1.1 

 mm. wide, oval, blunt ; second glume and sterile lemma covering the fruit, 

 3-nerved, appressed-pubescent or the lemma sometimes glabrous ; fruit pale. 



Rocky, mostly limestone soil, the Greater Antilles. Originally described from 

 Santo Domingo. This species is included in P. rupestre Trin. as listed by Hitch- 

 cock " and is the species described under that name by Nash.' We have not 

 seen the type of P. gracile, of which P. poiretii is a change of name. 



Cuba, Jamaica, Santo Domingo (Azua), and Porto Rico (Aguada and Lares). 



30. Paspalum capillifolium Nash, N. Amer. Fl. 17: 181. 1912. 



A low, densely tufted glabrous perennial with filiform culms and blades, the 

 Ifitter about 5 cm. long; raceme solitary, slender, 2 to 4 cm. long, the glabrous 

 elliptic spikelets about 1.7 mm. long. 



'Anal. Acad. Cienc. Habana 8: 202. 1871. 

 'Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 206. 1909. 

 N. Amer. Fl. 17: 182. 1912. 



