HITCHCOCK AND CHASE GRASSES OP THE WEST INDIES. 359 



stripe of dense short retrorse pubescence, broadening toward the summit, the 

 sterile culms naked below and bearing 5 to 7 crowded leaves at the summit, the 

 middle internodes elongate, the upper and lower reduced ; nodes prominent, 

 puberulent ; sheaths not over 15 mm. long, the lower and those of the fertile 

 culms with minute blades or sometimes bladeless, retrorsely puberulent along 

 the margin and toward the summit, the upper overlapping ones more or less 

 hirsute and with a ring of stiff hairs at the summit; ligule obsolete; blades (in 

 dried specimens) grayish green, paler beneath, rather firm, flat, 3 to 7 cm. long, 



6 to 12 mm. wide, lanceolate, rounded at the base, the apex acute, glabrous on 

 the upper surface or with a few scattered hairs, sparsely hispid beneath, and 

 bearing stiff hairs on the very short petiole ; staminate inflorescence consisting 

 of small spikelike panicles of 2 to 5 spikelets borne in the upper axils and at 

 the ends of the leafy culms, the lateral spikelets staminate, subsessile, about 



3 mm. long, 0.8 mm. wide, acuminate, minutely puberulent, strongly nerved, the 

 terminal spikelets in appearance like the pistillate ones, 7 to 8 mm. long, on 

 short obconic pedicels, neutral or with a rudimentary pistil ; pistillate inflo- 

 rescence consisting of small spikelike panicles of 2 or 3 fertile spikelets on short 

 thickened pedicels and a few more or less rudimentary subsessile staminate 

 ones borne at the ends and In the upper slightly inflated sheaths of low slender 

 naked culms arising from the base; fertile spikelets on short thickened pedicels, 



7 to 8 mm. long, 2 mm. wide, subterete, oblong-elliptic ; glume and sterile lemma 

 subequal, puberulent, strongly nerved, acuminate Into short setaceous scabrous 

 tips alx)ut 1 mm. long; fruit 6.5 mm. long, about 1.5 mm. wide, elliptic, apicu- 

 late, becoming lead-colored at maturity, clothed with soft silky appressed hairs, 

 a glabrous stripe down the back, the margins of the lemma nearly meeting over 

 the palea. 



Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, no. 865556, collected in a rocky ravine, 

 near Caparo, Trinidad, September 18, 1908, by W. E. Broadway (no. 2375). 

 " A dwarf grass in sandy soil on slopes under the shade of large forest trees." 



Raddia biformis differs from all the known species of the genus in having 

 culms of two forms, the one with an incompletely staminate, the other with an 

 incompletely pistillate inflorescence, and further in having pubescent fruits. 



Shady forest floors, Trinidad (Tabaquite, Hitchcock 10127, St. Anns, Trin. 

 Bot. Gard. Herb. 5892). 



2. Raddia urbaniana sp. nov. 



Perennial ; culms cespitose ( the tufts soiuetimes connected by a slender 

 rhizome), 20 to 45 cm. high, slender, ascending from more or less geniculate 

 lower nodes, striate-sulcate, bearing a narrow stripe of dense short retrorse 

 pubescence, otherwise glabrous, naked below, with distant nearly bladeless 

 sheaths, toward the summit bearing 12 to 24 approximate leaves with over- 

 lapping sheaths and distichous spreading: blades ; sheaths not over 1.5 cm. long, 

 hispidulous along the overlapping margin; ligule minute, fimbriate; blades (in 

 dried specimens) grayish green, thin but firm, flat, glabrous, 2 to 3.5 cm. long, 



4 to 8 mm. wide, oblong-lanceolate, rounded at both ends, bearing a scabrous 

 mucronate tip 0.5 mm. long, the petiole less than 1 mm. long; staminate 

 panicles several to many from the axils of the upper sheaths, narrow, few- 

 flowered, the axis and pedicels angled, scabrous, the spikelets 5 to 6 mm. long, 

 acuminate-pointed ; pistillate panicles one or two from the middle nodes, bear- 

 ing 2 to 5 spikelets on short clavate pedicels ; spikelets lanceolate, the glume 



8 mm. long, much exceeding the fruit, the sterile lemma 5 mm. long, both 

 acuminate-setaceous ; fruit 4 mm. long, about 1 mm. wide, bluntly acuminate, 

 white, glabrous. 



Type In the U. S. National Herbarium, no. 865554, collected in the center 

 of the island of Tobago, " abundant on the floor of deep forest on mountain," 



