193 



been known for so longj as Paspahun raceinidosuin Nutt. The 

 racemes in his species are described as " brevibus " and the rachis 

 as "pilosis," neither of which characters are to be found in our 

 plant, which has the racemes exceptionally long for this genus. 

 " Clavellate receptacle of the flowers pilose " and " calix villous " 

 are surely not descriptive of these parts in this grass, the spikelets 

 of which are very glabrous and the pedicels only puberulent. 



There is in the herbarium of Columbia University a specimen 

 ticketed as follows : " • Panicum Alabamense' Trin. in lit. 1 1 . Jul. 

 1832. Alabama, Dr. H. Gates, 1831." This is apparently in Dr. 

 Torrey's hand writing, and is pretty clear evidence as to the plant 

 of Trinius published by Steudel. I can discover no essential dif- 

 ferences between it and Paspahun bifidiivi. The leaves are some- 

 what broader and the racemes more numerous, but the habit, 

 character of the spikelets, racemes and pubescence, and its distri- 

 bution are the same. Other specimens from the Gulf States are 

 similar to the one labeled as above. 



Judging from the description given by Prof. Beal in Grasses of 

 North America (2 : 87, 1 896), I take the P. racemosum of that work, 

 which he has accredited to Lamarck, to be this plant. I am at a 

 loss to understand, if the description has been seen by him, why 

 he should adopt this name, as a mere casual comparison of La- 

 marck's description with our plant would show the error of such a 

 decision. The P. racemosum Lam., was originally published in his 

 Illustrations (i : 176), but a much more extended description, in 

 which a reference is made to the first publication, is given in the 

 Encyclopedia Methodique (5 : 32), where it is stated that the plant 

 is remarkable for its branching culms, and, further, that the inflo- 

 rescence is composed of a large number of short spikes, 4O-50, 

 and that the rachis is flat. He also remarks that his plant came 

 originally from Peru. This would hardly describe the grass which 

 I think Prof. Beal had in mind, in which the culms are never 

 branching but always simple, the racemes unusually long for this 

 genus and erect, and the rachis somewhat triquetrous and narrow 

 but not flat. Moreover, one would hardly expect to find native in 

 the southern Atlantic and Gulf States a plant which is indigenous 

 to Peru. 

 Panicum Bicknellii n. sp. 



Whole plant, with the exceptions noted below, smooth and 



