136 PANICACE^. 



A very slender smooth bnmcliiug perennial, 30-80-120 cm. 

 high. Leaf-blades smooth, shining, flat, tapering at the base, 6-15 

 cm. long, 5-7 mm. wide. Panicle exserted, jjyramidal, 8-20 cm. 

 long; rays few, capillary, mostly single, bearing few spikelets. 

 Spikelets dark green, obovate or oval, subacute, warty-roughened, 1.6 

 mm. long; first glume very small, second and third equal, the 

 nerves obscure, long enough to barely cover the fertile floret. 



Delaware, Canby ; Florida, Curtiss 3608; New Jersey, U. S. 

 Dept. Agricul. 103 from Scribner. 



Sandy low land near the coast, from New England to Florida 

 and Texas. 



57. P. brevifolium L. Sp. PI. 87 (1753). 



A slender geniculate branching annual, rooting at the lower 

 nodes, 30-60 cm. high. Sheaths pilose; ligule very short; blades 

 flat, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, rounded at the base, inequi- 

 lateral, 2-5 cm. long, more or less hirsute. Panicle diffuse, apex 

 oval, 8-12 cm. long; rays branching for most of their length. 

 Spikelets borne on stiff, capillary pedicels, obovate, obtuse, 1-1.3 

 mm. long, puberulent; first glume half to two-thirds as long as the 

 spikelet, 3-nerved ; second and third equal, 3-5-nerved ; floret ellip- 

 soidal, subacute, 1 mm. long; palea slightly convex. 



Mexico (Jalisco), Pringle 3828, Palmer 1083 ; also in the West 

 Indies and Brazil. Shaded places. 



58. P. ramulosum Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1 : 50 (1803). 



A slender tufted perennial, 10-30 cm. hig]}, culms erect, 

 smooth, exserted. Blades linear-lanceolate, 3-4 to a culm, rather 

 fii-m, flat or becoming involute, scabrous on the margins, with a 

 few hairs near the base and at the ligule, 2-3 cm. long, about 3 

 mm. wide. Panicle diffuse, oval or pyramidal, 3-5 cm. long; rays 

 capillary, flexuose, bearing numerous spikelets. Spikelets oval or 

 obovoid, about 1 mm. long; first glume broad, one-third as long as 

 the spikelet; second and floral glume of the neuter floret similar, 

 7-nerved, or the latter 5-nerved; palea half as long as its glume; 

 fertile floret smooth, broad, oval. By some believed to be a form of 

 P. dichotomum L. 



Florida, Curtiss^ Chapman, Canby 



