﻿300 Nash : Genus Syntherisma in North America 



spreading, alternate, or approximate in pairs, the rachis triangular, 

 the lateral angles broadly winged, the wings about .5 mm. wide 

 and hispidulous on the margins : spikelets slightly exceeding 2 

 mm. long, about 1 mm. wide, elliptic, acutish, on 3 -angled pedicels 

 which are sparingly or not at all hispid at the apex, usually in 

 pairs, sometimes in 3's ; outer empty scales usually purplish or 

 purple, the first scale wanting or sometimes present as a scarious 

 rudiment, the second and third scales about equal in length, 

 slightly shorter than the flowering scale, the second scale 3- 

 nerved, the margins and internerves pubescent with appressed 

 hairs, the third scale 7-nerved, the margins and the second and 

 also often the first internerves on each side similarly pubescent, 

 the fourth scale deep chestnut brown when mature, striate, acute ; 

 palet of equal length and similar texture. 



Introduced into waste places and fields and along roadsides, 

 particularly in sandy sterile soil, Nova Scotia to Ontario and South 

 Dakota, south to Florida, Louisiana and Kansas. 



Syntherisma linearis Mississippiensis (Gatting.). 



Pamcutn glabrutn var. Mississippiensis Gattinger, Tenn. Fl. 95- 

 1887. 



Differs from the above in having usually somewhat longer 

 racemes and the first scale of the spikelet nearly always present. 



Cedar barrens around Nashville, Tenn. Up to the present this 

 grass is known only from the collections of Dr. Gattinger, who 



states that it is confined to argillaceous soils, entirely disappearin 



on calcareous. 



Di 



9. Syntherisma setosa (Desv.). 



Hatniltonii 



;v. ; Hamil. Prod. PI. Ind. Occ. 6. i8^ ; 



Kth. Enum. PI. 1 : 84. 1833. 

 Culms 4-10 dm. tall, slender, branching, tufted, smooth and 

 glabrous, at length decumbent at the base and rooting at the lower 

 nodes ; nodes 4-several : culm leaves 4-several ; sheaths loosely 

 embracing the culm, usually shorter than the inte'rnodes, the lower 

 ones short, densely papillose-hirsute with spreading hairs, th 

 uppermost one elongated, glabrous or nearly so ; ligule a scarious 

 ring about 1 mm. long; blades 2-12 cm. long, 2-7 mm. wide, 

 flat, spreading or ascending, papillose-hirsute on & both surfaces, es- 

 pecially in the lower leaves, rough on the margins : panicle long- 

 exserted, its axis 4 cm. or less long, smooth and glabrous : ra- 

 cemes 4-13, 4-13 cm. long, finally widely spreading, usually in ;l 



