228 



CONTRIBUTIONS FliOM THE NATIONAL HERBAPJUM. 



10. Pennisetum domingense (Spreng. j Spreng. 



Gymnothrix domingensis Spreng. in Schult. Mant. 2: 284. 1824. "In S. Domingo. 

 Bertero." The type has not heen examined. The description, especially that, of the 

 minute involute blades, leaves no doubt of the identity of the species. 



Pennisetum domingense Spreng. Syst. Veg. 1: 302. 1825. "Hispaniol" [Santo 

 Domingo]. The brief description is doubtless drawn from the same Bertero collec- 

 tion, though Gymnothrix domingensis is not mentioned. Cenchrus parvijlortu Pair. 

 is erroneously given as a synonym. That name, as shown by Hitchcock, 43 is a syno- 

 nym of Chaetochlon geniculate/ (Lam.) Millsp. & Chase. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Plants glabrous, perennial: culms terete, solid, slender, rigid, glaucous, glabrous, 

 as much as 7 meters tall, branching, the branches borne singly or in fascicles of 2 to 

 4, about equaling the main culm, stiffly spreading at an angle of about 30 degrees; 

 nodes mostly swollen; sheaths 3 to 5 cm. long, much shorter than the elongate 



internodes, those subtending the fascicles loose and flat; 

 ligule lacerate-ciliate, about 0.5 mm. long; blades 0.5 

 to 4 cm. long, 1 to 2 mm. wide, involute, divergent, 

 firm, falling from the sheaths in age; panicles 3 to 5 cm. 

 long, terminal only, erect, loosely flowered, the slender 

 axis angled, scabrous; fascicles on minute pubescent 

 pedicels, ascending or spreading, the scabrous bristles 

 slender, flexuous, unequal, most of them 4 to 10 mm. . 

 long, the innermost less slender and 15 to 20 mm. long; 

 spikelet 4.2 to 4.5 mm. long, about 1.4 mm. wide, 

 obscurely strigose; firstglume about one-third the length 

 of the spikelet, faintly 3 to 5-nerved, erose: second 

 glume two-thirds as long as the spikelet, 5-nerved, 

 aGute; sterile lemma nearly equaling the fertile lemma, 

 5-nerved, sulcate down the middle, abruptly and mi- 

 nutely mucronate, the palea equaling the lemma and 

 inclosing a well-developed staminate flower; fruit 

 brownish, 4 to 4.2 mm. long, about 1 ram. wide, acu- 

 minate, the lemma mucronate. 



The above description is drawn from a single incom- 

 plete specimen, Turckheim's no. 3669. The following 

 note is given by Tiirckheim on the specimen in the her- 

 barium of the Berlin Botanic Garden [translated]: 

 "Near Maniel de Ocoa, 300 meters altitude: dry ground 

 among shrubs. Only one plant, 7 meters high. October, 1910." The species is 

 apparently very rare. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



On dry shrubby hillsides, Santo Domingo and eastern Cuba. 

 Cuba: Eastern Cuba, Wright 1547. 

 Santo Domingo: Maniel de Ocoa, Tiirchheim 3669. 



11. Pennisetum, durum Beal. 



Pennisetum durum Beal, Grasses N. Amcr. 2: 163. L896. "P. crinitum Scribn. 

 ined * * * Mexico, Pr ingle 489, 817." Dr. Beal's work was based on the collec- 

 tions in the herbarium of the Michigan Agricultural College. In i his herbarium arc 

 two specimens of "Pennisetuin crinitum Scribn." which are marked "durum Beal" 

 in Beal's handwriting. These are Pringle's nos. 49(8 and 817, both from the state of 



Fig. 72.— Pennisetum domingense. 

 From Tiirckheim 3669, Santo 

 Domingo. 



"Contr. U. S. Nat, Herb. 22: 168. 1920. 



