﻿302 Nash: Genus Syntherisma rx North America 



eral nerves sometimes very faint, the first and second nerve- 

 on each side, especially the second, hispid above the middle, 

 the margins and the second internerves on each side pubescent 

 with short appressed hairs, which sometimes finally become 

 spreading, the fourth scale yellowish- white when mature, acutely 

 apiculate, elliptic-lanceolate ; palet of equal length and similar 



texture. 



In cultivated places, fields, roadsides, etc., throughout North 

 America, but principally in the north. In the south it is replaced 

 by the following species. 



ii. Syntherisma fimbriata (link). 



Digitaria fimbriata Link, Hort. Reg. Hot. Berol. 1 : 226. 

 1827. 



Culms 8 dm. or less long, at length branching, prostrate at the 

 base and rooting at the lower nodes, smooth and glabrous ; nodi 

 4-many, usually more or. less pubescent : culm leaves 4-many : 

 sheaths loosely embracing the culm, shorter than the internode 

 the lower ones short, densely papillose- hirsute with spreading hairs, 

 the upper one sparingly so or glabrous, longer ; ligule a scarious 

 ring about 2 mm. long ; blades 2-8 cm. long, usually more than 

 4 cm., 5-10 mm. wide, flat, erect or ascending, both surfaces, as 

 well as the margins, rough, at least toward the apex, both surfaces 

 glabrous or more or less pubescent, the upper surface at the bas 

 also with a few long stiff spreading hairs arising from papillae : 

 panicle long-exserted, the axis 2 cm. or less long, smooth and 

 glabrous ; racemes 2-9, usually 5-8, 2-12 cm. long, commonly 

 5-8 cm., erect or ascending, alternate, in pairs or whorl's or various 

 combinations of these, the rachis triangular, the lateral angK 



winged, the wings .2-. 3 mm. wide, hispidulous on the margins: 

 spikelets 3-3.5 mm. long, about .8 mm. wide, lanceolate, very 

 acute, on 3 -angled pedicels, the angles hispidulous, in pairs, the 

 ong-pedicelled one often more copiously pubescent with longer 

 hairs ; first scale minute, triangular, glabrous, the second scale 

 from three-fifths to four-fifths as long as the spikelet, lanceolate- 

 cuneatc, 3-nerved, the margins and internerves pubescent with 

 long appressed hairs, the third scale slightly exceeding the flower- 

 ing scale, 7-nerved, the margins, the second internerve on each 

 side and also often the first internerve on one or both sides 

 pubescent with long appressed hairs which at length usually become 

 widely spreading, the fourth scale lanceolate, ve^y acute, yellowish 

 white at maturity ; palet of equal length and similar texture. 

 Diy sandy soil, District of Columbia to Florida, west to TeX» 



