302 Nash : New grasses from the West Indies 



lapping ; ligule a lacerated scarious ring about I mm. wide ; blades 

 6-12 cm. long, 1.5-3 cm - wide, on petioles up to 1.5 cm. long, 

 elliptic-lanceolate, rounded or somewhat cuneate at the base, long- 

 acuminate at the apex, smooth and glabrous, with 3 or 4 rather in- 

 distinct primary nerves on each side of the midrib : panicle shortly 

 villous, finally much exserted, consisting usually of a single branch 

 which is longer than the main axis of the panicle : staminate spike- 

 lets 2.5-3 mm. long, glabrous: pistillate spikelets 10-12 mm. 

 long, the empty scales about one half as long as the spikelet, the 

 flowering scale 10-12 mm. long, cylindric, often somewhat curved, 

 densely glandular-pubescent with spreading hairs, excepting the 

 somewhat obtuse, short-cuneate apex. 



This interesting plant is at present known from Haiti, Cuba, 

 and Porto Rico. Type specimen collected by the writer in deep 

 shade in a ravine called Les Roches, a kw miles to the west of 

 Plaisance, Haiti, -on August 1 1, 1905, at an altitude of about 540 

 meters, Nash & Taylor 1482, in the herbarium of the New York 

 Botanical Garden. The following specimens are also referred 

 here : Maxon 41 55 , near Jaguey, Yateras, Oriente, Cuba, April 



24, 1907,420 



Jaguey 





March, 1889, 800 meters; Sintenis 6308, Arecibo, Porto Rico, 



February 28, 1887 (sterile). 



In the character of the spikelets, this is related to Pharus glaber 



H.B.K. It is, however, at once distinguished by its habit, this 



having a long creeping stem which branches at intervals, the 

 plants thus forming large open mats, a feature quite unusual in the 

 genus. The leaf-blades are also quite different in size and shape, 

 being broadest below the middle and long-acuminate, whereas in 

 P. glaber they are broadly oblanceolate-elhptic, that is, broadest 

 above the middle, and much larger. The writer saw the two 

 species growing together in Haiti, and the differences of habit and 

 leaf-blade are very marked. In addition to the above differences, 

 the panicle of the new species is much smaller, and usually reduced 



to a single branch, giving the appearance of a panicle broader than 

 long. 



New York Botanical Gardkn. 



