WEST INDIAN GRASSES DESCRIBED BY SWARTZ. 135 



111 addition to the grasses included in the above chapter, Sloane 

 described four others. Two are from Madeira (Tab. 2. Figs. 4, 5, 6) . 

 The other two are described in an account of the plants of the island 

 of Nieves [Nevis]. 



Gramen dactylon bicorne tomentosum maximum, spicis numerosissimis. 

 Cat. pi. Jam. p. 33. Table 14 [the plate is numbered 15]. 

 This is Andropogon bicorne L. The diagnosis is cited by Linnaeus under that 

 .species. a In the second edition b the plate is also cited. 



Gramen avenaceum, panicula minus sparsa, glumis alba sericealanugine 

 obductis. Cat. pi. Jam. p. 35. Tab. 14. Fig. 2. 

 This is cited by Linnaeus under Andropogon insulare. c It is Valota insularis (L.) 

 Chase (Panicum leucophaeum H. B. K.). 



• THE WEST INDIAN GRASSES DESCRIBED BY SWARTZ. 



Olof Swartz collected in the West Indies, especially Jamaica, from 

 1783 to 1787. His collections are preserved in the Natural History 

 Museum at Stockholm. d His first account of his West India plants 

 was published in 1788 in a small work entitled "Nova Genera et 

 Species Plantarum, seu Prodromus Descriptionum Vegetabilium 

 Maximam Partem Incognitorum quae sub Itinere in Indiam Occi- 

 dentalem annis 1783-87 Digessit Olof Swartz." This work contains 

 the diagnoses of most of his new species of grasses. A few more 

 appear later in his more comprehensive work entitled "Flora Indiae 

 Occidentalis." e In the later work the descriptions are considerably 

 amplified and often aid in identifying his earlier diagnoses. A few 

 of his types of grasses are missing from his herbarium, but in all cases 

 I have been able to identify the corresponding species from his 

 descriptions or from authentic specimens distributed by Swartz to 

 other herbaria, such as those of Munich and Madrid. In this 

 article the species accredited to Swartz and published by Wikstrom 

 in Adnotationes Botanicae (1829) have not been considered except 

 when these are based on American material. 



Glyra pauciflora Sw. Prod. 21. 1788. 



The type specimen, labeled "Jamaica Fl. ind. occ," belongs to this species as 

 generally understood. 



Olyra paniculata Sw. Prod. 21. 1788. 



The type specimen is Olyra latifolia L. Swartz gives Linnseus's name as synonym. 



Sacharum polystachyon Sw. Prod. 21. 1788. 



No specimen of this could be found, but it is without doubt the species as generally 

 understood; that is, Paspalum saccharoides Nees, as described in Martius's Flora Bra- 



« Sp. PI. 1046. 1753. 

 &Sp. PI. ed. 2. 1482. 1762. 

 c Sp. PI. ed. 2. 1481. 1762. 



d A few of the Swartz types, chiefly species of Paspalum, had been loaned to Prof. 

 Carl Mez, who kindly allowed me to examine them at his herbarium in Halle. 

 «Vol. 1, 1797; vol. 2, 1800; vol. 3, 1806. 



