﻿Nash : New or noteworthy American Grasses 87 



The date of the copyright of Muhlenberg's work is June 12, 

 while that of the preface of the second volume of Roenier and 



j 



Muhlen- 



berg's name, therefore, takes precedence of that of Beauvois. 

 The specific name of gossypina, credited to Bosc by Beauvois un- 

 der the generic name of Chaetaria, although occurring in a work 

 published five years previous to that of Muhlenberg, is not avail- 

 able, as no description or synonymy are given by Beauvois, the 

 name being merely cited as a manuscript name of Bosc. 



Sporobolus Neallevi Vasey, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb, 3: 61. 



1892. 



As the description given by Dr. Vasey, at the place above 

 cited, is rather short, and its efficiency being further impaired by 

 the confusion existing in the last lines, owing to the omission of 

 some words, another and more complete description seems desira- 

 ble. The following is, therefore, appended, drawn from the mate- 

 rial to which the writer has had access : 



Plant grayish green ; culms from a perennial root, densely 

 tufted, smooth and glabrous, erect, slender, 1.5-5 dm. tall, the 

 sterile shoots about one-half as long as the culms ; sheaths shorter 

 than the internodes, a ring of long hairs at the apex, the lower 

 sheaths usually more or less villous, at least the uppermost one 

 elongated and glabrous ; ligule a ring of long hairs ; leaves spread- 

 ing, rigid, flat, or involute in drying, rough above, smooth be- 

 neath, 4-10 cm. long, 1.5 mm. or less wide; panicle at first in- 

 cluded, at length exserted, open, 3-8 cm. long, ovate, its smooth 

 branches spreading and slender ; spikelets about 2 mm. long, often 

 purplish, on hispidulous pedicels ; empty scales narrow and acumi- 

 nate, the first about one-half as long as the second which is 

 hispidulous on the mid-nerve toward the apex and about four- 

 fifths as long as the acute third ; palet acute, about as long as the 

 scale. 



During the past summer Mr. E. O. Wooton secured this 

 grass from another locality, it being previously known from Texas 

 only. Mr. Wooton collected it on the White Sands, Dona Ana 

 Co., New Mexico, July 17, 1897. No. 160. 





