7 



tJ" 



142 Chase — Notes on Genera of Panicetz. IV. 



in part." The author states that he " restores " the " name Panicum to 

 the group of plants to which it was applied as far back as nearly two 

 thousand years ago," overlooking Bubani's restoration of the same name 

 to the same group in 1901 (Fl. Pyren. 4 : 261) and the fact that Adanson, 

 Miller and .Moench, applied the name Panicum in the same way. As 

 shown in the revision of North American Species of Panicum (Hitchcock 

 & Chase, Contr. Nat. Herb. 15 : 13. 1910) "the historic type species of 

 Panicum is Chaetochloa italica ", and the pre-Linnsean name for the genus 

 containing Panicum miliaceum is Milium. Nieuwland, while maintain- 

 ing Panicum for the pre-Linnsean genus of this name, overlooks Milium 

 Tourn., the historic name of the genus containing Panicum miliaceum, 

 and also the post-Linmean Urochloa Beauv. (Ess. Agrost. 52. pi. 11. f. 1. 

 1812.) based on U. panicoides Beauv., which is the same as Panicum 

 helopus Trin. , an Old World species of the Fasciculata group of Panicum ; 

 Thalasium Spreng. (Syst. Veg. 4 : cur. post. 30. 18l'7), based on a 

 South American species allied to Panicum urvilleanum Kunth ; Stein- 

 chisma* Raf. 1827; Eriolytrum Desv. in Kunth (Rev. Gram. 2 : 217. 

 L830), based on a South American specimen of P. urvilleanum or an 

 allied species; and Phanopyrum Nash. The author (op. cit. 61) states 

 that the " other group [Panicum L. excluding Panicum italicum and its 

 congeners] has never to my knowledge received a name," and (op. cit. 

 63) that " This procedure leaves the other genus hitherto called Panicum 

 by the authors, without a name, as far as 1 am able to ascertain, and I 

 propose that of Chasea." Since this is proposed as a new name for 

 " Panicum of the authors" and no particular authors are mentioned, t 

 we take it as based upon Panicum as used by Beauvois (Ess. Agrost. 45, 

 L69, 170, 171. 1812) who, besides recognizing Paspalum L., Digitaria 

 Hall., Cynodon and Penhisetum Pers., segregates Selaria and Echinochloa, 

 leaving in Panicum the remainder of the species included by Linnaeus . 

 under that genus, that is the group of Panicum miliaceum and its 

 congeners. 



18. Genus ICHNANTHUS Beauv. 



Ichnanthus Beauv. Ess. Agrost. 56. pi. 12. f. 1. 1812. The genus is 

 based on a single species, I. panicoides Beauv. (op. cit. 57), " croit dans 

 1' Amerique meridionale : elle in' a ete comrnuniquee par M. Desfontaines. ' ' 

 The generic description is erroneous in that Beauvois mistook the append- 

 ages at the base of the fruit for an abortive floret placed, he says, 

 contrariwise to the other florets. (It was from this supposed abortive 

 floret that Beauvois derived the name Ichnanthus. ) We have not seen 

 Beauvois' specimen. The figure, though slightly inaccurate, is a good 

 illustration of the species well described and figured by Kunth (Rev. 

 Gram. 2 : 245. pi. 34. 1830) under the name Ichnanthus panicoides. 



* This and Phanopyrum are discussed in Contr. Nat. Herb. 15 : 18, 118, 327. 1910. 



tit might be inferred from the name proposed that Hitchcock and Chase, authors 

 of the North American Species of Panicum, were referred to, but this work is nowhere 

 mentioned by Nieuwland, nor is the source of the proposed name given. 



