34 



CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



Panicum pictigluma Steud. Syn. PI. Glum. 1: 73. 1854. "Brasil." We have not 

 seen the type of this, but Steudel cites P. purpurascens Raddi as a synonym and his 

 description applies well to P. barbinode. 



Panicum paraguayense Steud.; Doell in Mart. Fl. Bras. 2 2 : 189. 1877. This is 

 given as a synonym under P. numidianum Lam., and credited to "Steudel in planta- 

 rum Renggeri schedulis." We have not seen the type. 



The name P. numidianum Lam. was taken up as the earliest one for this species 

 by Nees,a Doell, & Hitchcock, c and others, but the type specimen of P. numidianum, 



"Ex numidia," in the Lamarck Herbarium, does 

 not agree in all respects with the type of P. barbi- 

 node. The lower glume is longer and is 3-nerved 

 instead of 1-nerved, the pedicels of the stalked 

 spikelets are longer, and the rachis lacks the long 

 hairs of P. barbinode. 



Panicum muticum Forsk.^ is accepted for this 

 species by Hooker « and others, but the identity 

 of Forskal's species is uncertain, as we have not 

 seen the type and the description is insufficient to 

 identify it. Forskal 's plant was collected at Rosetta 

 and is said to be allied to Panicum colonum. We 

 are informed by Mr. A. B. Rendle that the type is 

 not in the herbarium of the British Museum. 



Recent American authors/ have applied the name P. molle Swartz to this species, 

 but an examination of Swartz 's type 9 shows it to belong to a very different species. 



Fig. 15. — P. barbinode. From type 

 specimen. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Plants perennial, sending out widely creeping stolons; culms decumbent at base, 

 rooting at the lower nodes, 2 to 5 or 6 meters high, or higher in cultivation, robust, 

 simple, or producing leafy shoots only, glabrous, the nodes densely villous; sheaths 

 softly or harshly villous to merely papillose or even glabrous toward the summit, 

 densely pubescent at the juncture with the blades; ligules membranaceous, densely 

 ciliate, about 1 mm. long; blades ascending or spreading, 10 to 30 cm. long, 10 to 15 

 mm. wide, rounded at the base, glabrous on both surfaces, the margin scabrous; panicle 

 12 to 20 cm. long, about half as wide, the rather distant, subracemose, densely flowered 

 branches ascending or spreading, the main axis and the somewhat flattened branches 

 scabrous on the edges, densely pubescent in the axils, a few stiff hairs on the very 

 short pedicels; spikelets 3 mm. long, 1.3 mm. wide, elliptic; first glume about 

 one-fourth the length of the spikelet, 1-nerved, acute; second glume and sterile lemma 

 subequal, both exceeded by the sterile palea; fruit about 2.5 mm. long, 1.1 mm. 

 wide, obtuse, minutely transversely rugose. 



This species, commercially known as " Para grass," is cultivated in South America, 

 the West Indies, and Mexico, and has been introduced into the Gulf States. 



aAgrost. Bras. 122. 1829. 



6 Mart. Fl. Bras. 2 2 : 188. 1877. 



cContr. Nat. Herb. 12: 224. 1909. 



<*F1. Aegypt. Arab. 20. 1775. 



«F1. Brit. Ind. 7: 34. 1896. 



/Scribner, U. S. Dept. Agr. Div. Agrost. Bull. 14: 54. 1900; Nash in Small, 

 Fl. Southeast. U. S. 90. 1903. 



0See P. molle Swartz, page 42; and for a full discussion of Swartz's types, see 

 Hitchcock, Contr. Nat. Herb. 12: 135-143. 1908. 



