﻿Nash : Genus Syntherisma in North America 299 



much branched and prostrate and rooting at the lower nodes, 

 smooth and glabrous ; nodes 5-many : culm leaves 5-many ; 

 sheaths a little flattened, usually shorter than the internodes, the 

 lower ones densely, the upper and longer one sparingly, papillose- 

 hirsute with spreading hairs : ligule a scarious irregularly toothed 

 ring about 2 mm. long ; blades 1.5- 10 cm. long, usually less than 

 5 cm., 3-10 mm. wide, flat, lanceolate, more or less ascending, 7-9 

 nerved, rough on the margins, pubescent on both surfaces with 

 spreading hairs, the pubescence of two kinds, the one short and 

 soft, the other longer, rigid and arising from papillae : panicle 

 exserted, the axis 1-2 cm. long, smooth and glabrous ; racemes 

 2-6, usually 3 or 4, 2.5-10 cm. long, commonly less than 6 cm., 

 ascending or nearly erect, alternate, or sometimes approximate in 

 pairs, the rachis 3 -angled, the lateral angles broadly winged, the 

 wings about .3 mm. wide, rough on the margins : spikelets about 

 1-5 mm. long, about .6 mm. wide, elliptic, acute, on pedicels 

 which are terete or nearly so and glabrous, usually in pairs, some- 

 times in 3's ; outer empty scales pubescent with long appressed 

 hairs, the first scale wanting, the second about one-third as long as 

 the spikelet, 3 -nerved, the pubescence on the margins and inter- 

 nerves, the third scale a little shorter than the flowering scale, the 

 pubescence on the margins and the second internerves on each 

 side, the fourth scale white, ovate-lanceolate, acute ; palet of equal 

 length and similar texture. 



Low open grounds, Delaware to Florida, west to Mississippi. 



8. Syntherisma linearis (Krock.) Nash, Bull. Torr. Hot. Club, 



22 : 420. 1895. 



Panicum lineare Krock. Fl. Sil. 1 : 95. 17 8 



/°/ 



J in 1 iii f 1 



1805. 



Syntherisma glabra Schrad. Fl. Germ. I: 163. 1806. 



Paspalum ambiguum DC. Fl. Gal. 123. 1806. 



Panicum glabrum Gaud. Agrost. 1: 22. 181 1. 



Culms 2-5 dm. tall, slender, at length branched at the base, 

 finally prostrate and forming large tufts, smooth and glabrous ; 

 nodes 2-4 : culm leaves 2-4 ; sheaths flattened, smooth, glabrous, 

 at least all but the lowermost ones ; ligule a scarious ring about 2 

 nun. long: blades 1.5-13 cm. long, usually 3-5 cm., 2.5-6 mm. 

 w 'de, flat, erect or nearly so, smooth and glabrous on both sur- 

 faces or nearly so : panicle finally long-exserted, the axis 1-3 cm. 

 l °ng, smooth and glabrous; racemes 2-5, more frequently 2 or 3, 

 ve rv rarely 5, 2-8 cm. long, usually 3-6 cm., finally widely 



