an interesting species of the genus Paspalum was encountered. 

 It was impossible to correlate this with any of the known species 

 of the West Indies, and a search among the South American 

 forms revealed several specimens of a species from Brazil, the 

 Paspalum linearc of Trinius. One of these specimens is no. 763 

 of Mr. Spencer Moore, who secured it in the Matto Grosso region. 

 It was upon this number that Mr. Moore founded his Panicion 

 furccllatuDi (Trans. Linn. Soc. II. 4 : 505. pi. 34. f. 14-22), and 

 I am at a loss to understand why the grass was described as a 

 Pa)iiciiiii, for it has all of the characters of a Paspalum, as now 

 understood, — a secund inflorescence and a spikelet of three scales 

 — unless it be the occasional presence of a small fourth scale, an 

 occurrence not uncommon in Paspalum. The specimen of 

 Moore's 763, referred to above, which is in the herbarium of 

 Columbia University, has but one or two of the spikelets with a 

 fourth scale, the remainder possessing but three scales. Mr. 

 Moore remarks that his species is " treacherously like Paspalum 

 tropicum Doell and P. Nccsii Kth.," and if Mr. Moore considers 

 Paspalum Neesii Kth. synonymous with P. liucarc Trin., I must 

 consider the resemblance most treacherous, for I cannot distin- 

 guish the grasses. 



Mr. Moore's plant came from Santa Cruz, better known in 

 that region as Barra dos Bugres, a small town about one hundred 

 miles to the northwest of Cuyaba. The specimen upon which 

 Paspalum liuearc was based was said by its author, Trinius, to 

 have been secured by Langsdorfif in Brazil, but no more definite 

 location was given. In 1825, the Langsdorfif expedition, of which 

 Riedel was botanist, passed through the Matto Grosso region. 

 Langsdorff and Riedel journeyed together as far as Cu)'aba, 

 where they separated, the latter proceeding eastward, while the 

 former went to the northward, along the Arinos and Tapajos 

 rivers. This course would have carried Langsdorff within a few 

 miles of Santa Cruz, at which place Mr. Spencer Moore, si.xty- 

 seven years later, secured the material upon which he based his 

 Panicum furccllatuui. 



A word as to the rather complicated history of the names 

 which have been applied to this plant may not be out of place. 



