292 The Botanical Gazette. [October, 



BRIEFER ARTICLES. 



A neglected Spartina. — During the past two or three years 1 have 

 received from Florida, Mississippi and Texas, specimens of a Spartina 

 which I was at first disposed to consider new, but which I now think 

 is S.junciformis Engelm. & Gray, described in the Boston Journal of 

 Natural History v. (1845) P- 2 3&- It is evidently the S. gracilis of 

 Chapman's Flora, but not at all the true & gracilis Trin. (not Hooker), 

 which is well described by Mr. Watson in the Botany of the Fortieth 

 Parallel as having "4 to 10 spikes, mostly sessile and appressed to the 

 rachis, with the glumes and lower palet (floral glume) ciliate-hispid on 

 the keel." It is a species of the Rocky Mountain region and the 

 Pacific coast. The S. junciformis seems to be confined to the Gulf 

 region, and may be described as follows: 



Culms stout, smooth, 3 to 4 feet high; leaves involute, those of the 

 radical tufts 1 to 2 feet long, those of the culm 5 or 6, generally invo- 

 lute, rigid, narrow, smooth, the lower 1 foot long, the upper shorter: 

 ligule a very short hairy fringe, lower sheaths mostly shorter than the 

 internodes, the upper longer; panicle spike-like, 5 to 10 inches long, 

 dense, often cylindrical, tapering at the apex, composed of 30 to 50 or 

 more sessile, imbricated, appressed spikes or branches, which are from 

 l/ 2 inch to 1 inch long at the apex, the lower ones longer and less dense: 

 spikelets 2]/ 2 to a little over 3 lines long, the upper empty glume a little 

 longer than the floral glume, the lower one \ or k shorter, both hispid 

 on the keel, both very shortly mucronate, or sometimes without the 

 mucro; floral glume slightly hispid on the back, obtuse; palet smooth 

 about equaling its glume. 



Florida,/. H. Simpson ,■ Mississippi, Prof. S. M. Tracy; Texas, G. 

 C. Nmlley. Probably confined to the vicinity of the Gulf of Mexico. 



Prof. Scnbner, to whom [ sent specimens of this Spartina, states 

 that the same was collected last year by Mr. Pringle in Mexico, and 

 that he identified it as S. densiflora Brong. which is a native of Chili. 

 He also states that S. Gouini Fourn.. Mex. PI. Enum. Gram. p. I35< « 

 apparently the same, ft may be doubted whether the Chilian species 

 is the same as our plant; perhaps only an inspection of specimens will 

 enable us to determine; but if Fourmer's plant is the same, his name 

 must give place to that of Engeimann and Gray, as that was published 



many years earlier.- Geo. Vasky, Deft of Agriculture, Washington. 



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