Pijier — Andropogon halepensis and Andropogon sorghum. 37 



Johnson Ts^'o. 799, Abusi, 17 | 9 | 1900 (Kew) ; Brazil, Baliia, Dorscit No. 

 38,005 (AVasliington); Brazil, Gardner Nos. 1177, 1184 ( Wasliington). 



The Ledermanii specimens from Mav-Tschufi are perhaps distinct. 

 They were collected on the sandy banks of a river and grew to a height 

 of 3 to 4 meters, the stems as coarse as dnrra. Of the two sheets in the 

 Berlin herbarinm one has awns 12 mm. long; the other is awnless but 

 otherwise indistinguishable; lower glumes 9-nerved. The branches of 

 the panicle are shorter than in the plant of the coast. Along with these 

 Ledermann collected under No. 4153 specimens that are perhaps hybrid 

 with cultivated forms. The sheet in the Berlin herbarium contains two 

 erect panicles each about 30 cm. long and 5 cm. broad. One has the 

 spikelets pale, nearly smooth, awnless, 6 mm. long by 2 mm. broad. It 

 much resembles drummondii. The other has the spikelets 6 mm. long, 

 3 mm. broad, densely pilose with purplish hairs, its small awn exerted 

 about 2 mm. In general character it approaches cordofanus. 



The occurrence of this grass in Brazil is doubtless an incident due to 

 the slave trade. It is of interest that the only two wild forms of Andro- 

 pogon sorghum that reached America accidentally, namely, drummondii 

 and effusus, are both Guinea coast forms, the very region whence most 

 of the slaves were secured. Furthermore, all the forms of effusus, namely, 

 awnless, long-awned and short-awned, occur in Brazil; indeed Hackel 

 knew the last only from that country. Hackel probably on the basis of 

 a herbarium label states that effusus is cultivated in Brazil, but Dorsett 

 found it as a spontaneous weed, only rarely cultivated. It is at the 

 present time being tested under cultivation in the Gulf States. 



Andropogon sorghum verticilliflorus (Steudel) n. comb. 

 Andropogon verticilliflorus Steudel Syn. Pi. Glum. 1:393. 1854. 



Stems rather slender, probably never exceeding 6-8 mm. in diameter at 

 bases, probably 1 to 2 meters tall; leaf blades flat, pale green 1-3 cm. 

 broad; panicle loose, erect or somewhat nodding, 20 to 50 cm. long, 

 pyramidal; branches subverticillate, in 5 to 10 whorls, slender, ascend- 

 ing or somewhat spreading, the lowest about half as long as the panicle, 

 each naked for about one-third its length ; lower glume of fertile spikelet 

 lanceolate or lance-ovate, coriaceous, straw-colored, or at length some- 

 what reddish, not constricted at base, 5-6 mm. long, 2 mm. wide, 

 7-nerved, moderately persistent, glabrous on the back, pubescent near 

 the margins with white hairs; awns 12 mm. long; sterile spikelets nar- 

 row, strongly nerved, glabrous, as long as the fertile on shorter hairy 

 pedicels. 



Steudel' s original specimen was from the island of Bourbon. The fol- 

 lowing are doubtless the same: Mauritius, M. Bonton, 1864 and 1865. 

 "Naturalized abundantly in the forests and valleys." Flowers Dec. to 

 May (Kew); Rodriguez, i/. Bonton, "G73" 1864-5 (Kew); Rodriguez, 

 Dr. 1. B. Balfour, 1874 (Kew); Bourbon, Dr. I. B. Balfour, 1875. 

 Stems at base of specimens 5-6 mm. thick (Kew); Mohilla Island (Comoro 

 Islands), Dr. J. Kirk, April, 1861 (Kew); Johanna Island (Comoro 



