HITCHCOCK AND CHASE GRASSES OF THE WEST INDIES. 339 



the blades velvety, or the sheaths glabrescent, the blades of the main branches 

 commonly 20 cm. long and 2.5 cm. wide, those of the branchlets much smaller, 

 often less velvety ; panicles usually about 10 to 20 cm. long, at maturity as wide 

 or wider, the spikelets more or less clustered on the long distant tranches. 



Ravines, wood borders, and hedges, Mexico and the West Indies to South 

 America. Panicum sorghoideum was described from Porto Rico ; Panicum 

 lanatum (upon which Panicum swartgianum was based) from Jamaica, and 

 P. martinicense from Martinique. 



Cuba (Province of Santa Clara), Jamaica, Porto Rico, St. Thomas, St. Croix, 

 Antigua, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, St. Vincent, Grenada, 

 Trinidad, and Tobago. 



10. Lasiacis ruscifolia (H. B. K.). 



Panicum ruscifolium H. B. K. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 1: 101. 1816. 



Panicum compactum Swartz, Adnot. Bot. 14. 1829, not Kit.; Schult. Oesterr. 

 Fl. ed. 2. 1: 212. 1814, as synonym. 



Lasiacis compacta Hitchc. Bot. Gaz. 51: 302. 1911. 



More robust than any other species, freely branching, with numerous leafy 

 dorsiventral shoots with broad blades, velvety or glabrous beneath, glabrous or 

 scabrous above, the sheaths glabrous or nearly so, the scarcely exserted, oblong 

 or club-shaped panicles usually compactly flowered. 



In all the Trinidad specimens the spikelets contain a second sterile lemma, 

 a character not found in any other species known to us. This second sterile 

 lemma equals the first, contains a hyaline palea, and infolds the fruit rather 

 more closely than the sterile lemma commonly does in other species. The fruit 

 borne one joint higher on the rachilla consequently faces in the direction 

 opposite to the one usual in Paniceae ; that is, the palea side of the fruit faces 

 the second instead of the first glume. 



Climbing over bushes, Cuba, Jamaica (Bluefields), Trinidad, and Mexico 

 (whence originally described) to northern South America. No locality is men- 

 tioned in the original description of P. compactum, but the specimen in tht^ 

 Swartz Herbarium is labeled Jamaica. 



89. SACCIOLEPIS Nash. 



Inflorescence a narrow spikelike panicle; spikelets pointed, the second glume 

 and sterile lemma inflated (the glume more or less saccate), much larger than 

 the minutely stipitate fruit. 



Spikelets 4 mm. long on slender pedicels 1. S. striata. 



Spikelets 2 to 3 mm. long, subsessile. 



Spikelets 3 mm. long; panicle often interrupted 2. S. vilvoides. 



Spikelets 2 mm. long; panicle dense 3. S. myuros. 



1. Sacciolepis striata (L.) Nash, Bull. Torrey Club 30: 383. 1903. 



Holcus striutus L. Sp. PI. 1048. 1753. 



Panicum striatum Lam. Tabl. Encycl. 1: 172. 1791. 



Panicum gibbum Ell. Bot. S. C. & Ga. 1: 116. 1816. 



Panicum elliottianum Schult. Mant. 2: 256. 1824. 



Panicum aqtiaticum Bosc; Spreng. Syst. Veg. 1: 319. 1S25. 



Eymenachne striata Griseb. Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 554. 1864. 



Sacciolepis gibba Nash in Britton, Man. 89. 1901. 



An aquatic or semiaquatic glabrous perennial, the culm 1 to 2 meters tall, 

 rooting at the geniculate lower nodes, bearing a few erect branches, with long, 

 flat blades and narrow panicles 10 to 20 cm. long. 



Swamps and ditches, southeastern United States to Cuba (Hanabana, Lake 

 Ariguanabo), Porto Rico (Humacao, Santurce, Campo Alegre), and Jamaica 



