THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF PENNISETUM. 211 



containing the species with plumose bristles and 3 to 5 spikelets in a fascicle (among 

 the species listed is P. setosum with solitary spikelets); and Gymnotrix, with glabrous 

 bristles and solitary spikelets. 



Catatherophora Steud. Flora 12: 465. 1829. A single species, C. hordeiformis, based 

 on Panicum hordeiforme Thunb., is included. Steudel segregates it from Gymnothrix 

 because the lower florets are undeveloped, that is, the sterile palea is wanting. 

 Panicum hordeiforme Thunb. is composed of three varieties, a and /3 being from the 

 Cape of Good Hope, and 7 from Japan. Steudel cites Ecklon's no. 973 from South 

 Africa, showing that it is the African form upon which he bases his genus. This 

 is Pennisetum hordeiforme (Thunb.) Spreng. In Steudel's Nomenclator 4 the name 

 is spelled Cataterophora. 



Pentastachya Hochst.; Steud. Nom. Bot. ed. 2. 2: 299. 1841. No description is 

 given. A single species, P. abyssinica Hochst., nom. nud., is mentioned, this based 

 on Pennisetum pentastachyum Hochst., not described until 1851. Here Richard 5 

 states that Hochstetter wished to propose the genus Pentastachya for this species, but 

 that it could not be distinguished generically from other species having several spike- 

 lets in a fascicle. 



Beckeropsis Fig. & DeNot. Agrost. Aegypt. Frag. 2: 49. pi. 28. 1853. (Mem. Accad. 

 Sci. Torino 14: 365. 1854). Two species, B. nubica, based on Beckera nubica Hochst., 

 and B. petiolaris, based on Beckera petiolaris Hochst., are included. The first is 

 illustrated and is taken as the type. In this species the fascicle is reduced to a single 

 long bristle below the solitary spikelet. 



Eriochaeta Fig. & DeNot. Agrost. Aegypt. Frag. 2: 58. pi. SO, SI, 32. 1853. (Mem. 

 Accad. Sci. Torino 14: 374. 1854).' Three species, E. secundiflora, E. densijlora, 

 and E. reversa are included. Each is illustrated. In these species the bristles are 

 conspicuously plumose, and the spikelets are on plumose pedicels. 



Sericura Hassk. in Steud. Syn. PI. Glum. 1: 404. 1854. A single species, S. elegans 

 Hassk., from Java, is included. Leeke 6 refers this to Pennisetum macrostachyum 

 (Brongn.) Trin. The description well applies to that species. The name Sericura 

 was listed, with a few words of misleading description, in 1842. 7 Steudel obviously 

 misunderstood this genus. Though the generic description applies perfectly to 

 Pennisetum, he places it in Andropogoneae next to Imperala. 



Macrochaeta Steud. in Zoll. Syst. Verz. Ind. Arch. Pfl. 60. 1854. The name 

 Macrochaeta sacchariformis is mentioned without description in a note appended to 

 Sericura. Steudel (see paragraph above) says that he had formerly used the name in 

 letters. 



Amphochaeta Anderss. Svensk. Vet. Akad. Handl. 1853: 136. 1855. A single 

 species, A. exaltata Anderss., from the Galapagos Islands, is included. In this the 

 bristles are reduced to 2 to 6, mostly shorter than the spikelet and more or less clustered 

 at each side of it. Andersson emphasizes this character (hence the name). 



DESCRIPTION. 



Spikelets sessile or short-pedicel ed, one to several together, surrounded or subtended 

 by an involucre, composed of a fascicle of reduced sterile branchlets, the fascicles 

 Bessile or short-peduncled and usually crowded on a common axis forming spike-like 

 panicles, the fascicles falling entire with the spikelet inclosed; fascicles with few to 

 numerous slender, antrorsely scabrous bristles, distinct throughout or, in two species, 

 united at the very base into a minute disk, the outermost short, the inner longer, 

 mostly unequal, the innermost (that is, the branchlet at the base of which the spikelet 

 or the uppermost spikelet is borne) often stouter and longer than the others, sometimes 

 conspicuously so; spikelets lanceolate, mostly acute; glumes unequal, 1 to 5-nerved, 



4 Nom. Bot. ed. 2. 1: 311. 1840. 6 Zeitschr. Naturw. 79: 41. 1907. 



5 Tent. Fl. Abyss. 2: 387. 1851. 7 Hassk. Flora 25 2 : Beibl. 2. 1842. 



