HITCHCOCK GRASSES OF CUBA. 237 



52. MUHLENBERGIA Schreb. Syst. Nat. ed. 13. 2: 87. 171. 1791 



1. Muhlenbergia capillaris (Lam.) Trin. Gram. Unifl. 191. 1824. 

 Stipa capillaris Lam. Tabl. Encycl. 1: 158. 1791. 

 In dense tufts, Guinamar, October, Wright 3836. 



53. SPOROBOLUS R. Br. Prod. EL Nov. Holl. 169. 1810. 



Plants producing long rhizomes; blades conspicuously distichous. 5. S. virginicus. 

 Plants cespitose not producing rhizomes; blades not distichous. 



Panicle dense and spike-like 3. S. indicus. 



Panicle open. 



Spikelets about 1.5 mm. long; panicle pyramidal 1. S. argutus. 



Spikelets 2.5 to 4 mm. long; panicle elongated-oblong. 



Spikelets 2.5 mm. long; basal sheaths not felty 4. S. purpurascens. 



Spikelets 3.5 to 4 mm. long; basal sheaths copiously 

 felty-ciliate 2. S. cubensis. 



1. Sporobolus argutus (Nees) Kunth, Enum. 1: 215. 1833. 

 Vilfa arguta Nees, Agrost. Bras. 295. 1829. 



Wright 3828; Habana, Baker HC 1799, Leon 285; Batabano, Shafer 484, Hitchcock in 

 1906; Triscornia, Hitchcock in 1906. The following are in the herbarium of the New 

 York Botanical Garden: Habana, Baker 1818; Guantanamo, Earle 86. 



The type of Nees's species is at Munich. It is not the same as Vilfa domingensis 

 Trin., to which it has sometimes been referred. The Grisebach specimen of this, no. 

 300 of 1865, consists of two plants with two labels, "Saline grounds, in tufts, Matanzas, 

 July 17," and, "Sand banks by the seashore, Palma Sola, Aug. 8." 



2. Sporobolus cubensis sp. nov. 



Culms cespitose, glabrous, slender, erect, 40 to 60 cm. high; leaves of innovations 

 numerous, the sheaths copiously felty-ciliate on the margins, with white, yellow, or 

 brown hairs, which extend upward along the margins of the blade for a short distance; 

 basal blades very long and narrow, flat, or involute, nearly as long as the culms, 1 to 2 

 mm. wide, smooth except for the basal hairs, strongly striate-nerved, the two or three 

 upper blades short, 2 or 3 cm. long; panicle slender-pyramidal, glabrous throughout, 

 8 to 10 cm. long, branches verticillate, lowermost 5 to 8 in a whorl, slender and stiffly 

 spreading, 1.5 to 3 cm. long; spikelets glabrous, tawny, 3.5 to 4 mm. long, appressed, 

 on pedicels 0.5 to 1 mm. long; lower glumes rather broad, one-third to one-half the 

 length of the spikelet, 1-nerved, the upper glume and lemma about equal, weakly 

 1-nerved; palea as long as or longer than the lemma; grain oval, flat, 2 mm. long. 



Type specimen, Isle of Pines, Curtiss 392, U. S. National Herbarium no. 522010. 

 Other specimens are: Herradura, Hitchcock in 1906; Wright 3427 in Sauvalle 

 Herbarium. 



Wright's 3427 in the National Herbarium consists of this species, together with S. 

 purpurascens. S. cubensis is distinguished from S. purpurascens by its larger spikelets, 

 3.5 mm. long, the elongated blades, and the ferruginous-silky basal sheaths. Heller's 

 4590 from Porto Rico is S. cubensis. In the Grisebach Herbarium are three specimens 

 of this from Wright: No. 3427aof 1860-64; no. "922=3422 "from western Cuba, 1863; 

 and no. "945=3422" from western Cuba, 1863. (No. 3422 as published in Grisebach 's 

 Catalogue, is Eragrostis sudans). It will be noted that nos. 3427 and 3427a are the 

 reverse of what they are in the Sauvalle Herbarium. Wright's 3427 in the Gray Her- 

 barium is from "High pine woods, pinales, Mar. 1;" another sheet of this number is 

 part <S. cubensis and part S. purpurascens. 



3. Sporobolus indicus (L.) R. Br. Prod. El. Nov. Holl. 170. 1810. 

 Agrostis indica L. Sp. PL 63. 1753. 



Sporobolus jacquemontii Kunth, Rev. Gram. 2: 427. 1831. 



a Gen. PL 44. 1789, without citation of species. 



