347 



It has also been secured on Staten Island, New York, by Dr. N. 

 L. Britton ; and also in southeastern Virginia, east of the Dismal 

 Swamp and south of Great Bridge, by Dr. John K. Small. 



This well-marked grass is related in habit and general appear- 

 ance to P. piibescens Lam. and P. villosissimuvi Nash, differing 

 from the former in the larger spikelets and the longer hairs cloth- 

 ing the sheaths and leaves, and from the latter in the smaller and 

 differently shaped spikelets and in the smaller panicles. 



Panicum elongatum Pursh. 



The longer and acuminate spikelets serve well to distinguish 

 this from P. agrostoides Muhl. Another equally important and so 

 far constant character is the distinct stalk to the scale of the per- 

 fect flower. In P. agrostoides the fourth scale is sessile, or nearly 

 so, and much broader in proportion to its length. 



Dr. Geo. Vasey (Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 3: 35. 1892) noted 

 this feature in what he considered an eastern form of P. agros- 

 toides Spreng., and which is presumably the plant now known as 

 P. elongatum. 



Panicum parvispiculum n. sp. 



Culms 3-5 dm. tall, caespitose, erect, or later decumbent and 

 creeping at the base, glabrous, or toward the base appressed-hir- 

 sute, nodes blackish brown, usually more or less pubescent. 

 Sheaths shorter than the internodes, the lower ones usually ap- 

 pressed-hirsute, the upper puberulent or glabrous and ciliate on 

 the margins ; ligule a copious ring of hairs 3-4 mm. long ; leaves 

 erect or ascending, rigid, thickish, linear-lanceolate, rough on the 

 margins, glabrous above, pubescent beneath, usually with short 

 hairs, acuminate at the apex, rounded at the base, the primary 

 leaves 3-9 cm. long, 4-8 mm. wide, the later leaves 5-6 cm. long 

 or less; primary panicle broadly ovate, 8-10 cm. long, its branches 

 spreading or somewhat ascending, much divided from the base, 

 the larger 4-6 cm. long and frequently pilose at the base ; spike- 

 lets numerous, 1.5 mm. long, on divergent pedicels 1-3 times as 

 long as the spikelets, the first three scales membranous, green, 

 densely pubescent with short spreading hairs, the first scale one- 

 quarter to one-third as long as the spikelet, orbicular, acute, i- 

 nerved, the second and third scales about equal in length, broadly 

 oval -and obtuse when spread out, 7-nerved, the third scale enclos- 

 ing a hyaline palet less than one-half its length, the fourth scale' 

 chartaceous, elliptic, acutish, white, enclosing a palet of eqal length 

 and similar texture. 



