HITCHCOCK AND CHASE — NORTH AMERICAN GRASSES. 



41 



cept near the margins at the rounded base, scabrous on the white marginal 

 nerve ; panicle short-exserted or included at base, the common axis flat ; 

 racemes 2 to 6, commonly distant nearly or quite their own length, 3 to 8 cm. 

 long or the lowermost 9 cm. long, ascending or spreading, often arcuate ; rachis 

 villous at the very base, winged, 2 mm. wide, scabrous on the slightly 

 upturned margin ; spikelets usually barely imbricate, ovate, glabrous, 4 

 to 4.5 mm. long, about 2 mm. wide, 

 the lower two-thirds turgid, flattened 

 toward the summit ; first glume 

 scarcely one-third the length of the 

 spikelet, broad, blunt, 3 to 5-nerved ; 

 second glume and sterile lemma equal, k 

 exceeding the fruit and forming a 

 flat beak beyond it, 3 to 5-nerved, 

 with faint transverse wrinkles be- 

 tween the nerves toward the summit ; 

 fruit 3 mm. long, 1.7 to 1.8 mm. wide, 

 elliptic, turgid, papillose-roughened. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Low sandy open ground, southern 

 Louisiana and Texas and in western 

 Cuba. "*- ^•^v-c^*^' 1 - 



Louisiana : Slireveport, Ball 91 ; 

 Hitchcock in 1903. 



Texas : Houston, Hall 814 ; Nealley 70. 

 College Station, Reverchon 1879 ; 

 Hitchcock in 1903. Harvester, 

 Thurow in 1898. Ennis, Smith in 

 1897. Jacksonville, Joor 25. Har- 

 ris County, Joor 16. 

 Cuba: Pinar del Rio, Wright 3441, 3853, 3867. San Diego de los Banos, Ledn 

 4522, 4848. Sumidero, Shafer 13850; Shafer & Ledn 13637, 13724 (also dis- 

 tributed under the same numbers as Ledn & Shafer). 



Fig. 5. — Brachiaria platyphylla. Part of 

 panicle from Le6n 4848 ; spikelet from 

 the type specimen. 



6. Brachiaria plantaginea (Link) Hitchc. 



Panicum plantagineum Link, Hort. Berol. 1 : 206. 1827. Described from a 

 specimen grown in the Berlin Botanical Garden, the habitat given as un- 

 known. In the Link Herbarium, in the herbarium of the Berlin Botanical 

 Garden, is a specimen labeled "Panicum plantagineum Link, Lk. Hort 1, p. 206. 

 Brasilia, Beyrich." The description does not apply perfectly to this specimen, in 

 that the lower racemes are said to be long-peduncled and the palea of the neuter 

 floret wanting. The racemes in this species are usually spikelet-bearing nearly 

 to the base, but spikelets undeveloped or fallen might give the impression of 

 a peduncle, and the sterile palea, normally present, may sometimes be obso- 

 lete. The type may not have been preserved. This is evidently the specimen 

 which was examined by Trinius and which caused him * to refer his P. leandri 

 to P. plantagineum Link. 



Panicum leandri Trin. Gram. Icon. 3: pi. 335. 1836. " Figura ad specimen Bra- 

 silianum," presumably collected by Leandro de Sacramento, a Carmelite friar, 



1 Gram. Icon. 3 : Corr. et Emend, pi. 335. 1836. 

 115S03— 19 1 



