134 Chase — Notes on Genera of Panicecs. IV. 



Axonopus deludens sp. nov. 



Plants perennial ; culms geniculate at base, leafy, strongly flattened, 

 rather stout, 1 to 1.5 meters high, sparingly branching, glabrous, the 

 nodes glabrous; sheaths glabrous or minutely pubescent at the summit; 

 lignle about 0.5 mm. long, membranaceous, erose; blades rather thin 

 and lax, linear, 15 to 45 cm. long, 8 to 13 mm. wide, flat, sparsely papil- 

 lose-scabrous on the upper surface and on the margin, pubescent on the 

 narrow auricles, glabrous beneath, the midnerve prominent; inflorescence 

 of 6 to 15 very slender, erect or rather lax racemes, 10 to 25 cm. long, the 

 lower mostly naked at the base, the rachis narrow, subflexuous, scabrous; 

 spikelets purple tinged, distant about their own length or, toward the 

 base of the raceme, remote, 3 to 3.2 mm. long, 1 to 1.2 mm. wide, obtuse, 

 glabrous, the second glume and sterile lemma covering the fruit but not 

 exceeding it, delicate in texture, 4- or 5-nerved, the midnerve present or 

 suppressed even in adjacent spikelets, the lateral nerves strong; fruit 

 papillose, smooth toward the summit and margins of the lemma, the apex 

 glabrous or with a few obscure hairs. 



Type U. S. National Herbarium no. 460803, collected Oct. 20, 1903, 

 Barranca near Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, by C. G. Pringle (no. 8761 ). 



This species is not closely related to any other we have seen. The 

 geniculate lower nodes suggest a stoloniferous habit, but our one speci- 

 men does not show stolons. The suppression of the midnerve in the 

 glume or its presence is somewhat confusing, since it gives the impression 

 of spikelets turned different ways, reverse and obverse, but turning back 

 the glume always shows the back of the fertile lemma turned from the axis. 



There are some eight or ten South American species, as yet insufficiently 

 known, that belong in Axonopus proper. Paspalum suffultum Mikan 

 (Trin. in Spreng. Neu. Entd. 2 : 4<>. 1821) is interesting as a species inter- 

 mediate between Axonopus proper and section Cabrera. The axis is not 

 ciliate but the very short pedicels bear at either side a few stiff hairs nearly 

 as long as the spikelets. 



Section Cabrera (Lag.). 

 Axonopus chrysoblepharis (Lag.). 



Cabrera chrysoblepharis Lag. Gen. & Sp. Nov. 5. 1816. (See above under 

 Cabrera. ) 



Paspalus immersus Nees, Agrost. Bras. 82. 182!). "Habitat in campis 

 ultra 2000 pedes altis provinciae Minarum generalium passim." The 

 type specimen was examined in the Munich Herbarium. This is, as Nees 

 indicates, the species Kunth called Paspalum aureum, but since Kunth 

 based this name on Axonopus aureus Beauv. , his name is a synonym of 

 that, misapplied to this species. 



Panicum immersum Trin. Mem. Acad. St. Petersb. VI. Sci. Nat. 3 2 : 

 197. 1834. Based on Paspalum immersum Nees. 



Panicum chrysoblephare Steud. Syn. PI. Glum. 1 : 38. 1854. Based on 

 Cabrera chrysoblepharis Lag. 



