PANICE^. Ill 



Culms spreading, prostrate, or erect where crowded or shaded, 

 branching freely below, 15-30 cm. high. Leaf-blades flat, thin, 

 smooth, 3-6 cm. long, 3-4 mm. wide. Spikes 2-6, diverging, 

 nearly digitate, 4-6 cm. long, rachis flat, thin, 1 mm. wide. 

 Spikelets 3 together, successively overlapping for half their length, 

 ovoid or oblong, 2 mm. long, first glume minute and likely to be 

 overlooked, second and third as long as the spikelet, soft with very 

 short hairs, some having enlarged tips, 5-nerved. 



Iowa, Hitchcocli; Ontario, Foivler. 



Introduced from Europe. An annual grass, common especially 

 ■southward. 



Var. Mississippiense Gattinger, 



Plant 30-50 cm. high; spikes 7-10 cm. long, ra''hi3 nearly 

 straight; spikelets mostly in pairs or single. Tennessee, Gattinger, 

 also Minneapolis, Minn. 



6. P. serotinum (Walt.) Trin. Gram. Panic. 166 (1833). 

 Syntherisma serotina Walt. Fl. Car. 76 (1788). Digitaria seroUna 

 Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 46 (1803). D. villosa Ell. Bot. S. C. and 

 Oa. 1:132 (1806). Paspah(7)i serotinum Fluegge, Monog. 146 

 (1810). 



Perennial ; culms branching below, ascending from a creeping 

 base, 10-30 cm. high. Blades and sheaths rough, hairy, the blades 

 thin, flat, 3-7 cm. long, 5-7 mm. wide. Spikes 3-5, exserted or 

 included, spreading, not over 1.5 mm. apart at base, 4-7 cm. long, 

 rachis thin, flat, 1 mm. wide. Spikelets mostly in threes on pedi- 

 -cels of unequal lengths, oblong, acute, 1.5 mm. long, first glume 

 ■obsolete, second one-third as long as the spikelet, 3-nerved, clothed 

 witli crooked and knotted luiirs, third hairy, about as long as the 

 spikelet, 7-nerved. 



Florida, Curtiss 3606. 



North Carolina to Florida and westward. 



7. P. lanatum Rottb. Act. Lit. Univ. Hafn. 1 : 269 (1778). P. 

 Jencophmwi H. B. K. Nov. Gen. et Sp. 1 : 97 (1815). 



Culms stout, erect, 60-120 cm. high. Leaf -blades flat, broadly 

 linear, scabrous, often 30 cm. long; ligule ciliate. Panicle erect, 

 contracted, 15-30 cm. long, branches numerous, 5-10 cm. long. 



