HITCHCOCK AND CHASE NORTH AMERICAN PANICUM. 31 



Panicum glomeratum Buckl. Prel. Rep. Geol. Agr. Surv. Tex. App. 3. 1866, not 

 Moench, 1794. "Western Texas." The type, in the herbarium of the Philadelphia 

 Academy, is a single culm; the turgid spikelets are 2.3 mm. long. 



Panicum appressum Lam.; Doell in Mart. Fl. Bras. 2 2 : 184. 1877, not Forsk. 1775. 

 Based on Paspalum appressum Lam. 



This species has usually been called P. paspalodes Pers.a The latter, however, is 

 based on P. brizoides Lam.,& not L. c The published locality for Panicum brizoides 

 Lam. is "India." The type, in the Paris Herbarium, is labeled "herb, certo i. de 

 France [Mauritius] Commerson." It belongs to the species described by Hooker ^ 

 as P. punctatum Burm., e to which, however, Burmann's description does not well 

 apply. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Plants glabrous throughout; culms cespitose, usually numerous, 25 to 80 cm. high, 

 spreading from a more or less decumbent base, scarcely succulent; sheaths usually 



overlapping, rather close; ligule ciliate, 1 mm. 

 long; blades 10 to 20 cm. long, 3 to 6 mm. 

 wide, rather stiffly spreading or erect, flat, or 

 involute toward apex, somewhat scabrous on 

 the upper surface; panicle short-exserted or 

 included at the base, 12 to 30 cm. long; axis 

 angled, smooth except toward the summit; 

 racemes 12 to 18, erect or narrowly ascend- 

 ing, the lower rarely distant more than their 

 Fig. ll.-P. geminatum. From type specimen Qwn le th gradually approximate, the lower 



2.5 to 3 cm. long, gradually shorter upward, 

 the axis usually ending in a more or less well-marked, pointed prolongation; spikelets 

 subsessile, 2.2 to 2.4 mm. long, 1.4 mm. wide, turgid, abruptly and minutely pointed; 

 first glume about one-third the length of the spikelet, truncate or obtuse; second 

 glume nearly as long as fruit (exceeded only by the point of latter) 5-nerved; sterile 

 lemma 5-nerved, abruptly pointed, equaling the fruit and like the second glume very 

 faintly reticulate toward the summit, inclosing a hyaline palea and usually an abor- 

 tive staminate flower; fruit 2.2 mm. long, 1.2 mm. wide, elliptic, abruptly pointed, 

 strongly transversely rugose. 



In many of the specimens cited below the base is lacking. Other specimens show 

 a cespitose base with fibrous roots, and a single specimen from Cuba (Hitchcock 142) 

 shows in addition to the cespitose base long slender stolons. The specimen grew in 

 moist soil and the stolons extended over the mud, rooting at the nodes and sending 

 up vertical shoots. These stolons appear very different from the succulent submerged 

 bases of P. paludivagum. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Moist ground, mostly near the coast, southern Florida and Texas, south through 

 Mexico and the West Indies to Brazil and Peru; also in warmer parts of the Old World. 

 Florida: Manatee, Tracy 7381; Key Largo, Curtiss 3601*; Key West, Blodgett, 

 Hitchcock 613; Rugel 123. 



"Syn. PI. 1: 81.1805. 



b Tabl. Encycl. 1 : 170. 1791. Persoon quotes Lamarck's description. 



c Mant. PI. 2 : 184. 1771. This is Echinochloa colona (L.) Link. 



*F1. Brit. Ind. 7: 29. 1896. 



«F1. Ind. 26. 1768. 



