HITCHCOCK AND CHASE-— NORTH AMERICAN GRASSES. 



39 



rounded base to a sharp point, flat, puberulent or glabrous, usually ciliate along 

 the lower part of the thick white margin ; panicles finally long-exserted, 3 to 6 

 cm. long, rarely over 1 cm. wide, the common axis and rachises slender, angled, 

 pubescent, the few branches erect or ascending, not strict racemes with spike- 

 lets regularly arranged as in the other species, 1 to 2 cm. long, sometimes re- 

 duced to 1 or 2 spikelets; spikelets mostly distant about their own length, 

 4 mm. long, about 1.8 mm. wide, pointed ; first glume three-fourths the length of 

 the spikelet or more, 

 cuneate, 5 -nerved, 

 glabrous, or with a 

 few silky hairs at 

 the very base ; sec- 

 ond glume and ster- 

 ile lemma subequal, 

 exceeding the fruit, 

 5-nerved, the inter- 

 nerves densely silky 

 pubescent, or in the 

 lemma sometimes 

 nearly glabrous, the 

 portion from the lat- 

 eral nerves to the, 

 margins densely 

 clothed with glisten- 

 ing white silky hairs; fruit 3 mm. long, about 1.6 mm. wide, ellipsoid, apiculate, 

 transversely rugose. 



The reversed position of the spikelets places this species more naturally in 

 Brachiaria than in Panicum. Moreover, B. ophryodes is obviously a connect- 

 ing link between this species and B. meziana. 



Fig. 



3. — Brachiaria ciliatissima. Panicle from Tracy 7955 ; 

 spikelet from the type specimen. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Open sandy ground, Arkansas and Texas. 



Arkansas : Benton County, Plank 8. 



Texas: Kerrville, Hitchcock 5320. Austin, Hall 824. College Station, Hitch- 

 cock in 1903. Abilene, Tracy 7955. San Antonio, Amer. Gr. Nat. Herb. 200. 

 Kingsville, Piper in 1906. Rockport, Chase 6063. San Diego, Smith in 1897. 

 Corpus Christi, Hitchcock 5348. Sarita, Hitchcock 5448. Pena, Nealley 31. 

 Encinal, Griffiths 6381. Elsordo, Griffiths 6441, 6445. Torrecillas, Grif- 

 fiths 6432. Laredo, Hitchcock 5515 ; Reverchon 4150. Big Spring, Hitch- 

 cock 13358. Western Texas, Buckley in 1883. 



4. Brachiaria meziana Hitchc. 



Brachiaria meziana Hitchc. Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 140. 1908. "The type 

 specimen is no. 156925 of the U. S. National Herbarium (Pringle's 9592)." 

 This specimen was collected in the Cerro de Guadalupe, Federal District, 

 Mexico, altitude 2,250 meters, August 19, 1901. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Plants perennial, cespitose; culms flattened, glabrous or sparsely pilose, 15 

 to 40 cm. tall, at first erect or ascending and simple, later repeatedly branching 

 and decumbent-spreading, sometimes as much as 70 cm. long, often rooting at 

 the nodes; sheaths loose, pilose, or sometimes glabrate, densely ciliate on the 



