HITCHCOCK AND CHASE GRASSES OF THE WEST INDIES. 385 



keels crested above, the rachilla joint below the S-awned rudimentary floret 

 adnate to the lower part of the keel ; staminate spikelets awnless, imbricate in 

 short spikes, these racemose. 



1. Opizia stolonifera Presl, Rel. Haeuk. 1: 293. pi. Jfl. f. 1. 1830. 



A low stoloniferous perennial forming dense mats, the shoots on the stolons 

 mostly fascicled, the slender flowering culms 5 to 10 cm. tall ; blades flat ; pis- 

 tillate spikes short-exserted, the 1 to 3 racemose staminate spikes long-exserted. 



Open ground and pastures, southern Mexico and vicinity of Habana, Cuba. 

 Originally described from Acapulco. 



88. PAPPOPHORUM Schreb. 



Spikelets 1 to 3-flowered, the upper sterile; glumes thin, subequal ; lemma 

 subindurate, dissolving at the summit into about 13 slender awns, the second 

 and third florets reduced, closely appressed to the palea, the awns of all the 

 florets together forming a pappus-like crown, falling attached to the fruit. 



1. Pappophorum alopecuroideum Vahl, Symb. Bot. 3: 10. 1794. 



Pappophorum laguroideum Schrad. ; Schult. Mant. 2: 342. 1824. 



A tufted glabrous perennial with erect culms 1 meter or more tall, long 

 involute blades, and pale elongate spikelike, densely flowered panicles softly 

 bristly from the numerous delicate awns. 



Rocky soil, southern Mexico to South America and the West Indies. Vahl 

 states as to the origin of his type specimen, " Ad fodinas Insulae Spanish Town 

 Americae legit Du. v. Rohr." * This may refer to Spanish Town, Jamaica, but 

 we have no specimens from that island. Pappopliorum laguroideum was de- 

 scribed from the West Indies. 



Cuba (Province of Habana), Porto Rico (Punta Aguila and on Desecheo and 

 Mona Islands), St. Thomas, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, and Trinidad. 



89. MONANTHOCHLOE Engelm. 



Plants dioecious; spikelets 2 or 3-flowered, usually sessile in pairs, concealed 

 in the upper sheaths; glumes leaflike, rigid, with membranaceous sheaths and 

 short, strongly veined spreading blades, the first about equaling the uppermost 

 floret ; lemmas rather rigid, the palea with winged keels. 



1. Monanthochloe littoralis Engelm. Trans. Acad. St. Louis 1: 436. 1859. 



A low, extensively creeping, wiry perennial with erect, commonly paired 

 branches and crowded short rigid squarrose blades, the inconspicuous spikelets 

 hidden in the upper leaves. 



Muddy seacoasts of the warmer parts of America, often forming extensive 

 colonies. Originally described from Texas. Found in Cuba at Cayo Cruz 

 (Shafer 2773). 



90. GYNEBIUM Humb. & Bonpl. 



Plants dioecious ; spikelets several-flowered ; pistillate spikelets with long- 

 attenuate glumes and smaller long-silky lemmas; staminate spikelets with 

 shorter glumes and glabrous lemmas. 



* De Rohr was inspector of agriculture in the island of St. Croix. He visited 

 Jamaica, Martinique, Surinam, Cartagena, Cayenne, and St. Martha, his plants 

 going mostly to Vahl. (See Las&gue, Mus. Bot. Deless. 489. 1845.) 



