1 62 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS I BOTANY. 



4. PASPALUM Linn. 



Panicle with i -sided spikes, the spikes, with 2-4 rows of i -flowered 

 spikelets. Glumes 3, sometimes 2, the upper enclosing a shorter palea 

 with the perfect flower. Grain free. (Britt. & Br. i, 105 ; Eng. & Pr. 

 i, 2, 34, fig. 24.) 



Species, chiefly American ; many are pampas plants. 



1. P. DILATATUM Poir. 



Culm erect, glabrous, 60-90 cm. Sheaths compressed, the radical more 

 or less villous ; lignle membranaceous, obtuse or acute, pilose or naked. 

 Leaves (sublanceolate-) linear, the radical more than 30 cm., 6 mm. broad. 

 Racemes 2-10, scattered, alternately thick, often nutant, 4-10 cm. 

 Rachis glabrous, rather narrow. Spikelets 4-seriate, sublinear, unequally 

 pediceled, ovate, acute (depressed), marginally villosulous. Glumes 5- 

 nerved. Perennial grass. 



(S. Amer.) ; N. Patagon., along Rio Negro near Carmen, not rare in 

 herbage. 



2. P. DISTICHUM Linn. 



Culms creeping. Leaves flat (2-4 mm. broad), acuminate, smooth. 

 Spikes 2, Y-like, occasionally 3. Spikelets oval, acute. 

 N. Patagon. (Roca Exp.) ; N. and S. Amer. 



3. P. ELONGATUM Gr. 



Stout, erect, i m. high. Leaves 18 cm. long, linear-acuminate; sheath 

 long, ligule very short, truncate, ciliose. Panicle long, with many alter- 

 nate branches ; its spikelets 4-seriate, elliptical, obtuse, unequally pedi- 

 celled, glabrous. Sterile glumes remote from the rachis, 3-nerved ; floral 

 glume 5-nerved. 



N. Patagon. (Roca Exp.) ; Argentina. 



4. P. LEUCOPH^EUM H.B.K. 



Culm erect, tall, 60-180 cm., it and its nodes scabrous. Leaves linear, 

 acuminate, scabrid both surfaces and margin (20-35 cm - by 4-8 mm. 

 wide). Sheaths lax, from hairy tubercles; ligule short, rounded. Ra- 

 cemes numerous, dense, verticillate, subfastigiate. Pedicels short, or 

 equalling the spikelet; this 4-6 mm., linear-lanceolate, densely woolly. 



(S. Amer.) ; N. Patagon., in sandy meadows near salina at Carmen. 



