HITCHCOCK GRASSES OF CUBA. 211 



1. Alloteropsis amphistemon (Wright). 



Panicum amphistemon Wright, Anal. Acad. Cienc Habana 8: 207. L871; Sauv. 

 Fl. Cub. 198. 



Wright 3464. 



The type of Pa nicum amphistemon Wright is in the Gray Herbarium, Wright :J4t>4, 

 labeled "Mayarf-abajo, Aug. 2. in small dense tufts." 



2. Alloteropsis dura (Griseb. 



Panicum durum Griseb. Mem. Amer. Acad. n. ser. 8: 533. 1862. 



Rocky hills, procumbent in loose lulls, Valestina, September 25, Wright 3868; in 

 small tufts on steep hills at the Farallones, X. Sophie, September 29, Wright 1539 

 in the Gray Herbarium. 



In the Grisebach Herbarium is the type of P. durum. Wright 1559 from eastern 

 Cuba in 1859. 



27. MESOSETTJM Steud. Syn. PI. Glum. 1: 118. 1854." 



Spikelets copiously villous-ciliate 1 . .1/. rottboellioides. 



Spikelets glabrous or somewhat hispid 2. M. wrightii. 



1. Mesosetum rottboelliodes (H. B. K. . 



Panicum rottboellioides H. B. K. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 1: 96. 1816. 



Mesosetum cayennense Steud. Syn. PI. Glum. 1: 118. 1854. 



Culms scattered, single or few. savannas, Matatoso, August, Wright 3449; Herra- 

 dura, Baker HC 2935, Tracy 9058, Hitchcock in 1906; Isle of Pines, I 396, Palmer 



& Riley 889, 896, Taylor 31; Cienfuegos, Combs 401 in Gray Herbarium; Sagua, 

 Britton & Wilson 336 in Herb. X. Y. Bot. Gard. 



The Sauvalle specimen has a second label which reads, "In small tufts, Pinales, 

 Daganiguas, Almacigos Consolacion, Sept." The Grisebach specimen from western 

 Cuba, 1863, is numbered '-894=3449." Wright 3449 in the Gray Herbarium 

 is from "Savannas, Vueltabajo, July 24." 



2. Mesosetum wrightii sp. nov. 



Culms ascending from a geniculate, rooting or creeping base, slender, glabrous, 

 20 to 40 cm. long; nodes appressed-hispid ; sheaths glabrous below, hispid toward 

 the summit, or the lower hispid throughout, cilia te on the margin; ligule of short 

 bristles; blades flat or somewhat involute on the margins, stiff aud thick, yellow- 

 green, hispid below and sparsely so above, remotely papillose-ciliate on the car- 

 tilaginous margins, 3 to 6 cm. long, 2 to 3 mm. wide, the uppermost much reduced; 

 spike single, terminating the culm, mostly long-exserted, 2 to 3 cm. long; spike- 

 lets subsessile, appressed to the rachis, alternate, 3 to 4 mm. long, the apex of one 

 about reaching the base of the one above on the same side; first glume dabrous, 

 3-nerved, narrow, acuminate to a blunt point, a little shorter than the second, 

 placed next to the rachis; second glume hispid at the base with a tuft of hairs, 

 sparsely or copiously hispid above, strongly 5-nerved and with some additional 

 striae, narrowed to a blunt apex; sterile lemma similar, somewhat gibbous below, 

 7-nerved, its palea obsolete; fertile lemma chartaceous, smooth, and shining, rounded 

 on the back so as to be as thick as wide, about 2 mm. long, extended into a short 

 point, the margins flat, not inrolled; palea similar and included in the margins of 

 the lemma. 



Type specimen from Cuba, Wright 3859 no. 559961 in the U. S. National Herba- 

 rium. The fragmentary specimen in the Sauvalle Herbarium bears the label 



"Mesosetum Steud. Flora 33: 22S. 1850, nomen nudum. -The type species of 

 Mesosetum is M. cayennense Steud., "Leprieur legit, in Cayenne," the type speci- 

 men of which, in the herbarium of the Museum at Pari.-, belongs to the same species 

 as that of Panicum rottboellioides II. B. K. in the same herbarium. 



