

222 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



Pennisetum hamiltonii Steud. Nom. Bot. ed. 2. 2: 297. 1841. Based on "P. 

 alopecuroides Hamilt. (non Spr. nee. Steud.)." 



Pennisetum nicaraguense Fourn. Bull. Soc. Bot. France II. 27: 293. 1880. "Circa 

 Granada (n. 1304)," Nicaragua, the specimen collected by Paul L6vy. The type has 

 not been examined. The description applies well to the robust plants with hirsute 

 * blades collected by A. S. Hitchcock in Nicaragua (nos. 8708, 8738). 



Pennisetum indicum var. purpurascens Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 2: 787. 1891. Based 

 on Pennisetum purpurascens H. B. K. 



In Leeke's 2S revision Pennisetum setosum is included under P. indicum (Murray) 

 Kuntze, and the American plants as well as those of India and Africa are referred to 

 var. typica. The plant of India is an annual, much more freely branching than is 

 P. setosum, and has more slender, less dense panicles. It was described by Lin- 

 naeus as Panicum polystachion 29 and transferred by Schultes 3U to Pennisetum. 

 Linnaeus, following a brief diagnosis, cites "Rumph. amb. 6. t. 7. /. 2. B." Merrill Zl 

 identifies the Rumphian plant as Setaria flava (Nees) Kunth, and says that this 

 " Rumphian reference is the whole basis" of Panicum polystachion L. Since Lin- 

 naeus gives a diagnosis of his own, however, (which does not agree with the Rum- 

 phian figure) I should take his own specimen as the basis of his species. Dr. Stapf 

 states, in a letter, that in the Linnaean Herbarium there is a specimen of "the 

 Pennisetum setosum of India' ' [that is, the species which has commonly been so called] 

 "written up by Linnaeus himself polystachyum." If the name Pennisetum indicum 

 (Murray) Kuntze 32 were properly referable to this species it would be antedated by 

 P. polystachyum (L.) Schult. Dr. Stapf holds that A lopecurus indicus Murray (Syrt. 

 Veg. ed. 13. 92. 1774), upon which Pennisetum indicum Kuntze is based, was based on 

 Panicum alopecuroides of Linnaeus 's Mantissa. Murray cites "Panicum alopecuroides 

 Spec, plant. 82," but his description is copied verbatim from the Mantissa (p. 322, 

 1771) and not from the second edition of the Species Plantarum, the page reference to 

 which he gives, nor from the first. In the Mantissa Linnaeus changes the application 

 of the name. Following "Panicum alopecuroid. Excludatur et reformatum restitua- 

 tur sequentibus" he gives a description that is based on some plant having pilose culm, 

 sh >aths, and blades, and apparently an inflorescence of pearl millet or of common millet. 

 Panicum alopecuroides, ' ' Habitat in China, ' ' of the first edition of the Species Plantarum 

 (p. 55) was based on a plant undoubtedly sent to him by Osbeck. 33 In his Dagbok 

 ofwer Ostindsk resa, published in 1757, under date of September 27, 1751, Osbeck lists 

 "Panicum alopecuroides^ " without description, among plants observed growing along 

 hedgerows near Canton. Dr. Stapf, who at our request kindly examined the Chinese 

 plant in the Linnaean Herbarium, identifies it with Pennisetum compressum R. Br., 

 specimens of which from China agree perfectly with Linnaeus 's description. 



Leeke 34 refers Panicum vulpisetum Lam., 35 described from Santo Domingo, to P. 

 indicum. We have not seen Lamarck's specimen but the description (particularly 

 that of the spike as repeatedly subdivided f applies not to P. setosum, but to Chaetochloa 

 vulpiseta (Lam.) Hitchc. & Chase, as described in the Grasses of the West Indies. 36 

 Lamarck mistakenly cited Sloane's plate 70, figure 1, thus giving an erroneous im- ' 

 pression of his species, which he described from a specimen in the herbarium of 



28 Zeitschr. Naturw. 79: 17-19. 1907. 

 29 1Sy8t. Nat. ed. 10. 2: 870. 1759. 

 3°Mant. 2: 146. 1824. 



31 Rumphius's Herb. Amboinense 91. 1917. 



32 Rev. Gen. PI. 2: 787. 1891. 

 33 See Merrill on Osbeck's Dagbok in Amer. Journ. Bot. 3: 571. 1916. 



34 Zeitschr. Naturw. 79: 18. 1907. 



35 Encycl. 4: 735 (err. typ. 745). 1798. 



36 Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 18: 350. 1917. 



