lets 0.9-1.3 mm. long, pubescent, elliptic; autumnal phase: stems reclining or 

 decumbent-spreading, occasionally the culms at first sending out from lower and 

 middle nodes long branches similar to primary culms, later producing more or 

 less fascicled branches, or usually the culms with crowded branchlets, the whole 

 somewhat bushy-branched; blades flat or subinvolute. P. Wrightianum Scribn., 

 P. longiligulatum Nash. 



Infrequent in sandy woodlands, often in boggy or moist low places, in pine 

 barrens and swamps, in e. and s.e. Tex., spring-fall; Coastal States, Mass. to Tex.; 

 also Tenn.; W.I., C.A., Col. 



3. Panicum lanuginosum Ell. Fig. 153. 



Perennial; vernal phase (usually grayish) olive-green or bluish-green, velvety- 

 villous to densely spreading-villous throughout or the upper parts of the culm or 

 the various parts of the leaves glabrate; culms usually in large clumps, 2-7 dm. 

 tall, spreading, often with a glabrous ring below the nodes, the nodes themselves 

 usually with a retrorse gray beard; sheaths like the midstems in pubescence; 

 ligule a short fringe but blade at base with a ligulelike tuft of hair 3-5 mm. long; 

 blades thickish, sometimes stiff, often somewhat incurved or spoon-shaped (when 

 fresh), from nearly glabrous to densely velvety or densely villous, 4-10 cm. long, 

 5-12 mm. broad, sometimes with a very thin firm margin; panicle (4-) 6-12 cm. 

 long, the axis and also often the branches pubescent; spikelets 1.6-2.1 mm. long, 

 pubescent, 5- to 9-nerved; autumnal culms widely spreading to matted-decumbent 

 or ascending or rarely erect, freely branching from the middle nodes, the branches 

 repeatedly branching and much-exceeding the internodes, the ultimate branchlets 

 forming flabellate fascicles; blades much-reduced, 2-3 cm. long, usually much- 

 exceeding the panicles. P. Thurowii Scribn. & Sm. 



In wet meadows, swales, seepage areas, and wet soil along streams, about ponds 

 and lakes, in sandy woodlands and prairies, in Okla. {Waterfall), e. half of Tex., 

 to Ariz. (Pima Co.), spring-fall; N. S. and Que. to Mont., s. to Gulf States, 

 N.M., Ariz, and Calif, (rare w. of the 100th meridian). 



4. Panicum ensifolium Ell. Fig. 154. 



Perennial, glabrous throughout; vernal culms 2-4 dm. tall, erect or reclining; 

 ligule a very minute fringe or obsolete; blades distant, often reflexed, 1-3 cm. 

 long, 1.5-3 mm. broad, puberulent beneath (at least toward the tip); panicle 

 15-40 mm. long; spikelets 1.2-1.7 mm. long, glabrous or puberulent, 5- to 7- 

 nerved; autumnal culms spreading or reclining, sparingly branching from the 

 middle nodes, the branches mostly simple. 



Rare in moist sand, boggy soil and shady wettish places, in e. Tex. (Nacog- 

 doches and Newton cos ), spring-fall; Coastal States, N. J. to Tex. 



5. Panicum polyanthes Schult. Fig. 152. 



Perennial, completely glabrous (except spikelets); vernal culms erect, 3-9 dm. 

 tall, the nodes glabrous or nearly so; ligules absent or a minute fringe in 

 genetically contaminated plants; blades 12-33 cm. long, 15-25 mm. broad, firm, 

 cartilage-margined, at base cordate and ciliate. the upper scarcely reduced; panicle 

 8-25 cm. long, a fourth to half as wide as long, densely flowered, the branches 

 mostly viscid; spikelets 1.3-1.8 mm. long, minutely puberulent, obovoid-spherical 

 at maturity, broadly ellipsoid when young, 5- to 7-nerved; autumnal phase remain- 

 ing erect, producing simple branches from the lower and middle nodes, the thick 

 white-margined blades of the winter rosette conspicuous. 



In shallow water of streams, in seepage areas and in sandy moist woodlands, 

 in Okla. (McCurtain Co.) and in e. Tex., spring-fall; s.e. U.S. n. to Conn., Pa., 

 III., Mo. and Okla. 



310 



