345 



ing branches, the larger of which are 2-2.5 dm. long; internodes 

 of the rachis densely pubescent with silky hairs, 6-8 mm. long, the 

 lower internodes much exceeding the spikelets ; spikelets 4-5 mm. 

 long, one-half as long as the basal hairs, and about one-half again 

 as long as the clavellate pedicels, which are pubescent with very 

 short appressed hairs, and also with fewer long ascending hairs ; 

 outer scales of the spikelet pubescent with long hairs, at least at 

 first, the first scale slightly 2-toothed at the apex, the second sim- 

 ilar, but not so distinctly nerved, the third scale pubescent on or 

 near the margins toward the apex, the fourth scale glabrous, or 

 with a (ew hairs at the apex, purple on the margins, acuminate 

 into a scabrous, untwisted, straight or somewhat contorted awn 

 about 2 cm. long. 



Collected by Mr. W. T. Swingle in a wet hammock between 

 Paola and the Wekiva River, along the J. T. & K. W. R. R., on 

 Aug. 22, 1894, No. 1732a of my first distribution of Florida plants. 



The elongated branches of the panicle, the long internodes of 

 the rachis, and the longer basal hairs of the spikelet distinguish 

 this at once from any form of E. saccharoides , to which it is re- 

 lated. 



Panicum agrostidiforme Lam. 111. i: 172. 1791. 



This name was given by its author to a grass from South 

 America, probably from Cayenne, and its application to the plant 

 so common in our region, the P. agrostoidcs Muhl., has never been 

 satisfactory, not only because the description failed to fit our 

 plant, but also on account of the remoteness of the region from 

 which the Lamarckian plant originally came — a region the flora 

 of which is tropical and not likely to contain among its members 

 a grass native and plentiful in the eastern United States. A care- 

 ful comparison of a fuller description of this plant, in Encycl. 

 Meth. (4: 748. 1797), with material from northern South Amer- 

 ica, where this grass was originally secured, leaves Httle doubt as 

 to its proper identification. Among the characters given by 

 Lamarck is that of the ciliate margins of the sheath fissure. 

 There are three specimens in the herbarium of Columbia Univer- 

 sity which show this character in a marked degree, one of them 

 from northern South America, another from Turk's Island, W. I., 

 and the third from Truando Falls, on the Isthmus of Panama, col- 

 lected by Schott. These specimens agree with the description of 

 Lamarck, in the height and the jointed and leafy character of the 



