202 Alciiioirs I>cniicc P. Bislwh Miisciini 



branching, creeping, shade-loving annuals or perennials, with erect tlowering shoots, tlat, thin 

 lanceolate or ovate blades, and several one-sided, thickish, short spikes rather distant on a 

 main axis. 



I. Oplismenus hirtellus ( L. ) Ueauv. Ess. Agrost. 54. 168. 1812. 



Paniciiiii hirtcllinii L. Syst. Xat. ed. 10. 2:870. 1759. 



Plants perennial, branching, creeping and rooting, the fertile culms ascending, 20 to 40 cm. 

 long, glabrous; sheaths glabrous or ajipressed pubescent, villous on the margin, the surface in 

 some plants hirsute ; blades lanceolate, acuminate, commonly somewhat asymmetric at base, 

 5 to 10 cm. long, 8 to 17 mm. wide, thin, more or less hispid on upper surface, hispid or glab- 

 rous beneath: panicle mostly 7 to 15 cm. long, the axis scabrous, or hispidulous above, some- 

 times pilose-hispid on the angles above : racemes several, ascending or appressed, the lowermost 

 distant, 2 to 4 cm. long, the others successively shorter and closer together, the rachis his])idulous 

 at base and with long stiff whitish hairs, al)ove the base scabrous and hispidulous with here and 

 there long stiff hairs intermixed : spikelets approxnnate, more or less clustered along the rachis ; 

 first and second glumes about two-thirds as long as the spikelet, more or less appressed-hispidu- 

 lous, 3 to 5-nerved, slightly truncate or eniarginate at the apex, extending into a smooth terete 

 purplish awn, the first 5 to 10 mm. long, the second reaching about to the end of the spikelet; 

 sterile lemma broad, several-nerved, hispidulous like the glumes, apiculate or short-awned, 

 3 to 4 mm. long, the palea narrow, more than half as long as the lemma, sometimes inclosing 

 stamens; fruit alxiut 2.5 mm. long (fig. 93). 



Hillebi"and refers the Hawaiian species to O. coi/iposiliis sylraticiis and cites 

 as a synonym O. oalmensis Nees. The latter is a iiouicu itmlitm. It was listed by 

 Steudel '■■ as a synonym of Paiiiaiin oaliiiciisc ( Stcud. ins. ( )alma ) which also is a 

 iioriicii nudum. 



This species differs from O. coiiipositus (L-) Beanv. in the shorter racemes 

 with more compactly arranged spikelets. It may have been introduced into the 

 Hawaiian islands from tropical America where it is common. 



Rain forest and shady slopes. Originally described from Jamaica. 

 Kauai : Wailua Falls, Forbes 495, 497. 

 Oahu: Mountains east of Schofield Barracks, Hitchcock 14035; Nuuanu Pali, 



Hitchcock 13776, 14057; W'aialae \^alley, Forbes 1951. Valley behind 



Honolulu, collector unknown, probably \\'ilkes Expl. Exped. Tantalus, 



Heller 2061. Kaala Mountains, Wilkes Expl. Exped. (Gray Herbarium). 

 Without locality, llillcbrand 484; Mann Sc Brigham 20; Seeman 2248 (CTray 



Herbarium ). 

 Molokai; Pukoo, Hitchcock 15041. 

 Maui: Lahaina, Hitchcock 14878, 14879. 

 Hawaii; Honaunau, Hitchcock 14544. Puu Waawaa, Hitchcock 14479. Hilo, 



Hitchcock 14199; Newell in 1917. Without locality, Remy 104 (Gray 



Herbarium). 



40. ECHINOCHLOA Beauv. 



Spikelets plano-convex, often stiffly hispid, subsessile, solitary or in irregular clusters on 

 one side of the panicle branches ; first ghmic al«ut half the length of the spikelet, pointecl ; second 

 glume and sterile lemma equal, pointed, mucronate, or the glume short-awned and the lemma 

 long-awned, in some species conspicuously so, inclosing a membranaceous palea and in some species 

 a staminate flower; fertile lemma plano-convex, smooth and shining, acuminate-pointed, the 



'* Steudel, Ernst G., Nomenrlator botaiiicus, 2d cd.. Vol. 2, p. 260, 1841. 



[ 104 J 



