580 MISC. PUBLICATION 200, U. S. DEPT. OP AGRICULTURE 



4. Paspalum vaginatum Swartz. (Fig. 1206.) Flowering culms 8 

 to 60 cm tall; sheaths usually overlapping; blades 2.5 to 15 cm long, 



3 to 8 mm wide, tapering to an 

 involute apex; racemes at first 

 erect, usually spreading or reflexed 

 at maturity, 2 to 5 cm long; 

 rachis 1 to 2 mm wide; spikelets 

 solitary, 3.5 to 4 mm long, ovate- 

 lanceolate, acute, pale-stramine- 

 ous ; first glume rarely developed ; 

 midnerve of the second glume 



Figure 1203.— Paspalum acuminatum. Panicle, X 1; Figure 1201.— Paspalum repens. Panicle, X 1 

 two views of spikelet, and floret, X 10. (Arsene two views of spikelet, and floret, X 10 



3132, Mex.) (Hitchcock 9179, Canal Zone.) 



and sterile lemma usually suppressed. % — Seacoasts and brackish 

 sands, often forming extensive colonies, North Carolina to Florida and 

 Texas, south to Argentina (fig. 1207); tropics of Eastern Hemisphere. 



Figure 1205. — Distribution of 

 Paspalum repens. 



Figure 1206.— Paspalum- vaginatum. Panicle, X 1; two views of 

 spikelet, and floret, X 10. (Hitchcock 9866, Jamaica.) 



5. Paspalum distichum L. Knotgrass. (Fig. 1208.) Resembling 

 P. vaginatum, sometimes with extensively creeping stolons with pubes- 



