186 Chase— Notes on Genera of Panicese. III. 



Inflorescence monoecious consisting of two slender spike-like racemes, 

 one pistillate the other staminate, at the summit of a slender naked culm ; 

 pistillate spikelets dorsally compressed, 1-flowered, lanceolate-oblong, 



solitary on very short clavate pedicels along one side of a slender triangu- 

 lar racliis; first glume wanting, second glume and sterile lemma subequal, 

 not setaceous; fertile lemma white-cartilaginous subindurated, the 

 margins flat, enfolding a palea of like texture and equal length ; grain 

 dorsally compressed; staminate spikelets smaller than the pistillate, 

 glumes and sterile lemma wanting, lemma and palea membranaceous, 

 equal, the lemma 1 -nerved, palea 2-nerved; stamens 3. Low tufted 

 perennials; the flowering culms with 1 to 3 nodes, the short sheaths 

 destitute of blades, distinct from the sterile stems which bear several to 

 many more or less distichous, flat, ovate-lanceolate, blades, less than 2 

 cm. long, narrowed into a petiole-like base. Name from /jlvIov moss and 

 xX6a grass, from the resemblance of the sterile stems to Mnium a genus 

 of mosses. But two species known, both from Cuba. 

 Type. — Digitaria pulchella Griseb. 



Mniochloa pulchella (Griseb.). 



Digitaria pulchella Griseb. 1866, Cat, PI. Cub. 231. "Cuba or. 

 (Wrfight] 3448). E[ndemic]." The type in the Grisebach herbarium 

 at Gottingen was examined by Prof. A. S. Hitchcock. 



StrepMum? pith-helium Wright 1871, Anal. Acad. Cien. Habana 8 : 202; 

 Sauv. Fl. Cub. 193. 1873. "[3448.] Digitaria pulchella Gris. Crece al 

 horde <le precipicios en el Yunque de Baracoa." 



A description follows giving the monoecious character of the inflores- 

 cence, a point which seems to have escaped Grisebach's notice. 



A delicate species, flowering culms filiform, 15 to 25cm. high, nodes 2 or 3, 

 at least the lower geniculate, the upper internode and peduncle elongated, 

 sheaths slightly inflated, 1 to 3 cm. long, racemes erect or ascending 2 

 to 3.5 cm. long, the staminate slightly shorter than the pistillate; 

 pistillate spikelets glabrous, 2.5 mm. long; glume and sterile lemma 

 about one-fourth shorter than the glabrous fruit; staminate spikelets 

 1.5 mm. long, glabrous. Sterile stems spreading or prostrate, the 

 distichous leaves approximate, the sheaths, at least the upper over- 

 Lapping, filiate on the margin and at the summit, blades linn, S to 18 

 mm. long, 3 to 5 mm. wide, subacute, sparsely hairy along the mid- 

 nerve, pale green above, dark purplish beneath, undulate on the margins. 

 Known from a single collection, Wright 344S. In addition to the type, 

 specimens of this number have been examined in the Gray herbarium 

 and in the Sauvalle herbarium in the Estacion Agronomica, Santiago de 

 las Vegas, Cuba. The specimen in the Gray herbarium lias five flower- 

 ing culms from the single small tuft, On the sheet is a slip in Wright's 

 hand "Cram, near Olyra * * not Digitaria, nov. Panicum." 



Mniochloa strephioides (Griseb.). 



Olyra strephioides Griseb. 1866, Cat. PI. Cub. 22!). "Cuba occ. 

 (YVrfight] 3435)." Type in the Grisebach herbarium at Gottingen. 



