Hifclicock — The Grasses of Hazcaii 129 



Escaped from the United States Agricultural Experiment Station grounds; 

 introduced from Africa. In the original description no locality is cited. 

 Oahu: Honolulu, Hitchcock 14123. 



6. Eragrostis atropioides Hillebr. Fl. Haw. Isl. 531. 1888. 



Plants perennial, in loose tufts with short hard scaly creeping rhizomes as much as 7 cm. 

 long: culms erect, hard, glabrous, slightly scabrous below the panicle, i to 1.5 meters tall; 

 sheaths glabrous, pilose on the margins especialh- in the sterile shoots, pilose at the throat : ligule 

 a pilose ridge, the hairs 5 mm. long; blades elongate, 30 to 40 cm. long, 4 to 6 mm. wide, 

 glabrous beneath, scabrous on the upper surface ; panicle erect, narrow, contracted but scarcely 

 spikelike, 25 to 50 cm. long, 2 to 4 cm. wide, the branches appressed, several at a node, some 

 short or the spikelets sessile, others as much as 10 cm. long and naked at the base. Spikelets 

 lineai', many-flowered, as much as 2.5 cm. long, the rachilla glabrous ; glumes a little unequal, 

 3 to 4 mm. long-, acuminate, more or less scabrous on the keel ; lemmas glabrous, obtuse and 

 erose at the summit, about 2 mm. long, pale or purplish, rather closely imbricate; palea persist- 

 ent, about as long as the lemma, obtuse, minutely ciliate on the keels (fig. 15). 



Sandy plain between ]\Iauna Kea and ]\Iauna Loa, about 4000 feet. Origi- 

 nally described from "East Maui? (label lost), probably growing in wet places". 

 Hillebrand also describes two varieties ,S and y), one from "Hawaii or Maui," the 

 other from "Oahti." 



Hawaii: \\'est of Humuula Sheep Station on road to W'aimea. Hitchcock 14445, 

 14459. PiJ" Waawaa, Hitchcock 14493, I-1495- ^fauna Kea, above W'ai- 

 kii. Rock 8405. Parker's Ranch, Smith in 1902. ^launa Loa, ^^'ilkes Expl. 

 Exped. 



Without locality : Hillebrand. 



A specimen in the Gray Herbarittm collected in the "]\Its. East ^Maui" by the 



Wilkes Expedition appears to be this species. 



7. Eragrostis mauiensis sp. nov. 



Plants perennial ; culms erect, cespitose, glabrous, 30 to 40 cm. tall ; sheaths glabrous, 

 sHghtly villous at the throat; ligule a ciliate membrane less than 0.5 mm. long; blades mostly 

 involute. 10 to 15 cm. long, i to 2 mm. wide, glabrous on the lower surface, slightly villous on 

 the upper surface near the base, tapering to a fine point ; panicle oblong, open, about 30 cm. long 

 and 5 to 7 cm. wide, the branches slender, stiffly ascending, as much as 10 cm. long, scabrous, 

 villous in the a.xils, the ultimate branchlets or pedicels stiffly ascending, mostly longer than the 

 spikelets ; spikelets 7 to 10 mm. long, mostly 8 to lo-flowered, brownish yellow ; glumes nearly 

 equal, acuminate, scabrous on the keel, i-nerved, the first a little shorter and narrower, about 

 2 mm. long, about as long as the lower lemma, almost awn-pointed ; lemmas tapering to an 

 obtuse point, 2 to 2.5 mm. long, obscurely scabrous on the keel near the apex, rounded on the 

 back or keeled toward summit, faintly 3-nerved, imbricate and hiding the rachis, glabrous ; palea 

 a little shorter than the lemma, closely and minutely ciliate ; grain oblong, dark brown, finely 

 alveolate, 1.2 mm. long (fig. 16). 



"& 



Type in the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University, collected on sandhills 

 at \\"ailuku, ]\Iaui, Hawaiian islands, by the Wilkes Exploring Expedition. 



This species resembles Eragrostis cllioifii S. \\'ats. in the slender, stiffly 

 ascending branches and pedicels, but differs in the shape of the panicle. 



[31] 



