68 



CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Plants robust, erect or spreading, 60 cm. to over 1 meter high; culms glabrous or 

 sparsely papillose-hispid, the nodes pubescent; sheaths papillose-hispid or nearly 

 glabrous; blades 15 to 40 cm. long, 15 to 30 mm. wide, cordate-clasping at base, rather 



prominently nerved, glabrous or sparsely papillose- 

 hispid; panicles large and more or less drooping, 

 20 to 30 cm. long, densely flowered, the numerous 

 branches narrowly ascending; spikelets 3 to 3.3 

 mm. long, 1.1 mm. wide, lanceolate, strongly 

 nerved, brownish; first glume half to two-thirds 

 the length of the spikelet, acuminate; second glume 

 slightly exceeding the sterile lemma, the palea of 

 the sterile floret wanting; fruit 2.1 mm. long, 1 mm. 

 wide, oblong-obovate, subacute. 



This species may be a cultivated form of P. 

 Mrticaule. It is large in all its vegetative parts. 

 Palmer states that it is used as food by the Cocopa 

 Indians, the seed being sown in spring on wet 

 ground. A specimen from the State of Chiapas in southern Mexico, Nelson 2959, is 

 intermediate between this and P. Mrticaule but is more robust than the latter species, 

 the blades being 15 cm. long and 18 mm. wide. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Rich bottom land, northwestern Mexico. 

 Mexico: Lerdo, Palmer 947 in 1889; southwestern. Chihuahua, Palmer 1 c in 1885; 

 Culiacan, Palmer 1539 and 1554 in part in 1891. 



29. Panicum par cum sp. no v. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Plants sparingly branching from the middle or upper nodes; culms 30 to 50 cm. 

 high, slender, erect or somewhat geniculate at base, glabrous; sheaths rather sparingly 



Fig. 52 



From type 



papillose-hispid, glabrate toward the base; 

 rather thin, linear, elongated, 10 to 30 cm. 

 long, 2 to 6 mm. wide, slightly narrowed 

 to the base, acuminate, sparsely pilose 

 on both surfaces or glabrate, more or less 

 ciliate; panicles short-exserted, the termi- 

 nal 10 to 20 cm. long, half to two-thirds as 

 wide (the axillary smaller), few-flowered, 

 the few, slender, but not capillary, flex- 

 uous branches solitary, remote, ascending, 

 bearing ascending or appressed branchlets 

 with scattered, rather long-pediceled 

 spikelets; spikelets about 6 mm. long, 1.8 

 mm. wide, turgid, acuminate-pointed; 

 first glume about half the length of the 

 spikelet, pointed; second glume longer 

 than the sterile lemma, both exceeding 

 the fruit and pointed beyond it, the sterile 

 palea about half as long as its lemma; fruit 

 3.3 mm. long, 1.4 mm. wide. 



Type U. S. National Herbarium no. 

 471378, collected October 9 to 15, 1891, on 



ligules 1 to 2 mm. long; blades ascending, 



Fig. 53.— P. parcum. From type specimen. 



"mountain side, not very common, 

 by Edward Palmer (no. 1657). 



Lodiego, on the Culiacan River, Sinaloa, Mexico, 



