﻿Nash : Genus Syxtherisma in North America 297 



second about four-fifths as long as the spikclet, acute or acutish, 

 sparsely pilose at the apex, otherwise glabrous, 3 -nerved, the 

 third scale a little shorter than the fourth, 7-nerved, glabrous, the 

 fourth scale deep chestnut brown when mature, elliptic, obtusely 

 apiculate, rather faintly striate, enclosing a palet of equal length 

 and similar texture. 



Collected at Grasmere, Florida, by Mr. C. H. Baker, no. 47. 

 It is closely related to 5. gracillima, but its more densely pubes- 

 cent sheaths, the pilosity at the base of the racemes, the much 

 longer and acute second scale with its pubescent apex, and the 

 fainter striation of the fourth scale seem to warrant the above dis- 

 position of it. 



6. Syxtherisma Simpsoxi (Vasey). 

 Panicum sangitinale, var. Simpsoui Vasey, Contr. U. S. Nat. 







Herb. 3: 25. 1892. 



Culms 8-12 dm. long, more or less compressed, smooth and 

 glabrous, branching, at first erect, finally prostrate at the base and 

 rooting at the lower nodes ; nodes numerous, deep purplish black, 

 pilose : culm leaves numerous ; sheaths loosely embracing the 

 culm, keeled, of varying length, from shorter to longer than the in- 

 ternodes, copiously papillose-hirsute, the hairs widely-spreading ; 

 ligule a membranous ring 2-3 mm. long, purple at the base ; 

 blades 7-30 cm. long, 5 mm. or less wide, flat, ascending, rough 

 on the margins, papillose-hirsute on both surfaces : panicle long- 

 exserted, the axis 4-6 cm. long, smooth; racemes 6-8, 10-13 

 cm. long, erect or ascending, scattered, or sometimes approxi- 

 mately in pairs, the rachis 3-angled, the angles hispidulous and not 

 winged : spikelets a little exceeding 3 mm. in length, about 1 mm. 

 ^ide, elliptic-lanceolate, acute, on hispidulous 3-angled pedicels, 

 in pairs, one short-, the other long-pedicelled, the tip of the latter 

 usually about reaching the base of the next pair of spikelets ; 

 scales glabrous, the first one wanting or sometimes present as a 

 minute rudiment, the second and third scales about equal in 

 length, the former 5-, the latter 7-nerved, the fourth scale a little 

 shorter than the third, elliptic, acute, yellowish white, finely striate ; 

 palet of equal length and similar texture ; stamens red-purple, 

 about 1.8 mm. lone. 



Moist saline soil, Florida. This is more nearly related to S. fill- 



fonnis than to 5. sangmnalis, the umvinged rachis at once excluding 



«t from relationship with the latter. It is one of the most marked 



forms of this genus and certainly worthy of specific rank, to which 



