38 



CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL, HERBARIUM. 



(or the uppermost shorter and lanceolate, and the basal ones as much as 15 

 cm. long), acuminate, the white cartilaginous undulate margin scabrous and, 

 toward the rounded base, papillose-ciliate, more or less papillose-hispid on 

 both surfaces; primary panicles long-exerted, the secondary panicles short-ex- 

 serted or included at base, the common axis and rachises slender, angled, 

 scabrous, the rachises villous at base; racemes 2 to 4, nearly erect, 3 to 4 cm. 

 long, the short, thick pedicels bearing a few long white hairs; spikelets ap- 

 proximate. 4 mm. long, 2 mm. wide, with a dense, silky-villous, or furlike band 

 down each side; first glume half as long as the spikelet, acuminate, villous 

 below, the tip glabrous ; second glume and sterile lemma equal, pointed beyond 



the body of the fruit, 

 the glume villous except 

 at the summit, bearing 

 at each side of the prin- 

 cipal lateral nerves a 

 very dense band of as- 

 cending pale silky glis- 

 tening hairs increas- 

 ingly longer toward the 

 summit, the 2 bands 

 divided by the hidden 

 nerve, or the inner band 

 sometimes wanting, the 

 bands abruptly termi- 

 nating about one-fourth 

 below the summit; sterile lemma inclosing a long palea and sometimes a 

 staminate flower, 5 to 7-nerved, the third pair of nerves almost marginal, 

 the lateral internerves and margins villous, the second or lateral pair of 

 nerves bearing on the outer side a single band of dense hairs like those of 

 the second glume; fruit about 2.5 mm. long (excluding the awn), 1.5 mm. wide, 

 stramineous, transversely rugose, the lemma tipped with a puberulent awn 

 sometimes nearly 1 mm. long. 



Type in the U. S. National Herbarium, no. 693324, collected along an irriga- 

 tion ditch in loamy soil, at Monterrey, Nuevo Le6n, Mexico, July 6, 1910, by 

 A. S. Hitchcock (no. 5538). Known only from the type collection. 



Brachiaria ophryodes is allied to B. ciliatissima, from which it differs in 

 the stouter and pubescent culms, in the more densely flowered racemes, in the 

 abrupt termination below the summit of the spikelet of the band of glistening, 

 silky hairs, and in the awn-tipped lemma. _ 



Panicum ciliatissimum Buckl. Prel. Rep. Geol. Agr. Surv. Tex. App. 4. 1866. 

 " Northern Texas." The type specimen is in the herbarium of the Academy 

 of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. No locality other than Texas is given on 

 the label. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Fig. 2. — Brachiaria ophryodes. From the type specimen. 



3. Brachiaria ciliatissima (Buckl.) Chase. 



Plants perennial, producing long leafy stolons, with short internodes, rooting 

 at the swollen nodes, the blades short, firm, divaricately spreading; flow- 

 ering culms usually sparingly branching, erect or ascending, 15 to 40 cm. high, 

 glabrous, the nodes bearded; sheaths sparsely (or sometimes rather densely) 

 pilose, mostly shorter than the internodes ; ligules densely hairy, less than 1 

 mm. long ; blades 3 to 7 cm. long. 3 to 5 mm. wide, tapering from near the 



