226 



CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



rather short-exserted, mostly stiffly erect, 12 to 25 cm. long, about 10 mm. thick, ex- 

 cluding the longer bristles, dense or sometimes loose at the base, stramineouB or 

 tawny or sometimes with pale bristles and greenish purple spikelets, the axis ridged, 

 scabrous, toward the base often 2 mm. thick, the panicles of the branches commonly 

 partly included, .shorter, more slender, less densely flowered; fascicles sessile, ascend- 

 ing; bristles scant, unequal, most of them scarcely exceeding the spikelet, the outer 

 shorter or two or three of them sometimes a little longer, the innermost stouter, 

 12 to 20 £m. long; spikelets solitary, sessile, 5 to 6 mm. long, about 1.3 mm. wide, 

 acuminate, often blotched with purple, scaberulous toward the summit; first glume 

 one-fourth to half the length of the spikelet, 1-nerved, acute or subacute; second 

 gluma slightly shorter than the fruit, 5-nerved, subacute; sterile lemma equaling the 

 fruit or slightly exceeding it, 5-nerved, acuminite, the palea obsolete; fruit indu- 

 rate, 4.5 to 5 mm. long, about 1.3 mm. wide, acuminate, the tip often spreading, the 

 tip of the palea free. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Moist meadows or wet open ground, in the highlands of 

 southern Mexico. 



Jalisco: Rio Blanco, Palmer 514 in 1886. 

 Guanajuato: Irapuato, Hitchcock 7397. Acambaro, Amer. 



Gr. Nat. Herb. 432; Pringle 2608. 

 Veracruz: Rio Blanco near Orizaba, Hitchcock 6343. 

 Mexico: Lecheria, Pringle 13251. 



Michoacan: Morelia, Hohvay 41 3593; Pringle 4316; Arsene in 

 1909 and 1910. Patzcuaro, Holway 3629. 



9. Pennisetum complanatum (Xees) Hemsl. 



Gymnothrix complanata Nees, Bonplandia 3: 83. 1855. "See- 

 mann n. 1560. Panama." The description indicates an excep- 

 tionally small plant with decumbent base, such as Pittier's 

 no. 1901a from Salvador. The type specimen is in the her- 

 barium of the British Museum. Two fascicles from the panicle 

 were kindly sent by Dr. Rendle for deposit in the National 

 Herbarium. 



Pennisetum complanatum Hemsl. Biol. Centr. Amer. Bot. 3: 

 507. 1885. Based on Gymnothrix complanata Nees. 

 Gymnothrix mexicana Fourn. Mex. PI. 2: 48. 1886. "Orizaba * * * (Boorg- 

 [eau] n. 3139, Schaffn[er] n. 105, 174, Thomas in herb. Buchinger, F. Mull[er] 

 n. 2015, Bott[eri] n. 143, 1486); Papantla (Liebm[ann] n. 344)." The name was 

 earlier listed without description by Hemsley. 42 A specimen of Bourgeau's no. 3139 

 is in the National Herbarium. Liebmann's no. 344 in the Copenhagen Herbarium, 

 bearing the name in Fournier's writing, has also been examined. 



41 Dr. Holway 's Mexican grasses collected in 1899 were sent to the agrostologist of 

 the Department of Agriculture with labels bearing the name, locality, date, and col- 

 1 ector's number, but without the name of the collector. By some mischance the col- 

 lections were attributed to Dr. J. N. Rose, whose name was written by some clerk on 

 the Department of Agriculture label. It was only after the publication of Hitchcock's 

 Mexican Grasses (Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 17: 181-389. 1913) that the mistake was 

 discovered. This and other specimens collected by Holway are there cited as Rose's. 



12 Biol. Centr. Amer. Bot. 3: 508. 1885. 



Fig. 70.— Pennisetum 

 crinitum. From Arshne 

 in 1910, Mexico. 



