Hitchcock — The Grasses of Hflzca// 219 



Plants perennial, with creeping rhizomes i. H. halepensis. 



Plants annual 2. H. sorghum. 



1. Holcus halepensis L. Sp. PI. 1047. I753- Johnson grass. 



Andropogou halepensis Brot. Fl. Lusit. i -.Sg. 1804. 



Sorghiiiii halepeiise Pers. Syn. PI. i :ioi. 1805. 



Plants perennial, with stout scaly creeping rhizomes; culms erect, glabrous, 60 to 120 cm. 

 tall; sheaths glabrous; blades flat, 6 to 15 mm. wide, the white midrib prominent; panicle 15 to 

 25 cm. long, more or less spreading ; sessile spikelet about 5 mm. long, lanceolate ; glumes pubes- 

 cent, becoming glabrous and shining except at base and margins ; pediceled spikelets narrow, 

 4 mm. long, on pedicels 3 mm. long, the glumes membranaceous, nerved, glabrous (fig. 108). 



Introduced in fields and along roadsides. Originally described from Syria. 

 Oahii: Xnuanu Valley, Forbes 1331. Manoa A^alley, Hitchcock 13734. 



2. Holcus sorghum L. Sjx PI. 1047. ^753>- Sorghum. Sorgo. 



Sorghnin saccliaratiiui Moench. I\Ieth. 207. 1794. 

 Sorghum viilgare Pers. Syn. PI. i ;ioi. 1805. 



Plants annual, usually robust, the spikelet characters similar to those of 

 H. halepensis, the panicle large and spreading or compact. Many varieties are in 

 cultivation throughout the world. Some of these have been grown in the Hawaiian 

 islands and may occasionally be fotmd growing spontaneously, though I have seen 

 no specimens except the Sudan grass (H. sorghum sudanensis (Piper) Hitchc. 

 Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 29:128. 1916; Andropogou sorgJium sudanensis 

 Piper, Proc. Biol. Soc. ^^'ashington 28:33. 191 5.), which has been found on the 

 experiment plots at Schofield Barracks and has escaped in the vicinity. It was also 

 found at Honolulu (Hitchcock 13674) and Lihue (Forbes 591). HillebrancP 

 describes two species, Sorghum z'ulgarc, the sorghum or Guinea corn, and .9. sae- 

 cliaratum the sweet or sugar sorghum. Sudan grass is widely grown in the United 

 States for forage. 



48. RHAPHIS Lour. 



Spikelets in threes, one sessile and perfect, the other two pedicellate and sterile, or a pair 

 below, one fertile and one sterile; fertile spikelet terete, the glumes coriaceous; sterile and 

 fertile lemmas thin and hyaline, the latter long-awned. Perennial grasses, with open panicles, 

 the three spikelets (reduced racemes) borne at the ends of slender naked branches. 



I. Rhaphis aciculata (Retz. ) Desv. Opusc. 69. 1831. 



Andropogou aeiculatus Retz. Obs. Bot. 5:22. 1789. 



Rhaphis trivialis Lour. Fl. Cochinch. 553. 1790. 



Andropogou acicnlaris ^^'illd. Sp. PI. 4:906. 1806. 



Chrysopogon aeiculatus Trin. Fund. Agrost. 188. 1820. 



Desvau.x uses the specific name aeiculare, basing it upon "Andropogon acieulare Retz." 



J-'lants ]3ercnnial, creeping and rooting, the base of the sterile shoots in open ground cov- 

 ered with imbricate, scalelike old sheaths ; culms ascending or erect from a decumbent base, 

 10 to 30 cm. tall; sheaths glabrous, mostly overlapping, ciliate or villous on the margin; blades 

 mostly toward the decumbent base of the culm, flat, glabrous, scabrous on the margin with sharp 

 rather distant teeth. 2 to 5 cm. long, 3 to 5 mm. wide, the uppermost much reduced ; panicle 

 narrowly elliptic, 3 to 6 cm. long, the slender branches ascending or appressed, smooth, as much 



"' Op. cii.. p. 511. 



[121] 



