HITCHCOCK AND CHASE NORTH AMERICAN PANICUM. 



79 



Fig. 68.— Distribution of P. maximum. 



Panicum trichocondylum Steud. Syn. PI. Glum. 2: 74. 1854. "Duchaising legit 

 in Ins. Guadaloup." The type specimen, in the Steudel Herbarium, bears a label 

 with the data as published. 



Panicum praticola Salzm. ; Doell in Mart. Fl. Bras. 2 2 : 203. 1877. This is given as a 

 synonym of P. maximum Jacq. Doell cites "Salzmann Herb. Bahiense N. 683" 

 which specimen we have not seen. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Plants light green, 1 to 2.5 meters high, or taller in cultivation, in tufts of few to 

 many culms, from creeping rootstocks; culms robust, erect or sometimes genicu- 

 late and rooting at the lower nodes, glabrous, the nodes usually densely hirsute; 

 sheaths shorter than the internodes, papillose-hirsute to glabrous, ciliate, 

 usually a dense ring of pubescence at the juncture with the blade; ligules 4 

 to 6 mm. long, stiffly and densely ciliate from a membranaceous base; blades erect 

 or ascending, flat, 30 to 75 cm. long, 1 

 to 3.5 cm. wide, very scabrous on the 

 margin, otherwise glabrous, or hirsute 

 on the upper surface at the base; pani- 

 cles finally long-exserted, 20 to 50 cm. 

 long, usually about one-third as wide, 

 densely flowered, the long, rather stiff 

 branches ascending, naked at the base, 

 the lower in whorls, the axils pilose, 

 the branchlets short, appressed, bear- 

 ing more or less clustered, short-pedi- 

 celed spikelets; spikelets 3 to 3.3 mm. 

 long, 1 to 1.1 mm. wide, and about as 



thick, oblong-ellipsoid, glabrous, somewhat shining, faintly nerved; first glume about 

 one- third the length of the spikelet, obtuse; second glume and sterile lemma subequal, 

 slightly exceeding the fruit, thin in texture, the lemma inclosing a staminate flower; 

 fruit 2.3 to 2.5 mm. long, about 1 mm. wide, elliptic, transversely rugose, minutely 

 puberulent at the apex. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Cultivated for forage under the name of Guinea grass in the Gulf States, especially 

 in Florida, and southward through tropical South America, whence it has escaped into 

 fields and waste places; also in the tropical parts of the Old World. 



Florida: Duval County, Fredholm 373; Indian River, Curtiss 3597**; Eustis, 

 Nash 1730; Grasmere, Combs 1170; Orange County, Baker in 1897; Braiden- 

 town, Combs 1310; Caximbas Island, Simpson 580; Key West, Blodgett; with- 

 out locality, Simpson. 

 Mexico: State of Vera Cruz, Finch 8 and in 1893, Smith 1409; Cordoba, Kerber 

 48; State of Colima, Emrich 3; Huitamalco, Liebmann 425 in part; Zacualpan, 

 Pur pus 3774. 



a Trimen (Hand. Fl. Ceyl. 5 : 154. 1900) states the following concerning this grass: 

 "The well-known Guinea Grass was introduced from W. Trop. Africa into Jamaica 

 about 1774, by Mr. John Ellis, as food for some birds which he had imported. The 

 birds died, and the seed, being thrown away as useless, yielded a magnificent grass 

 greedily eaten by cattle and horses. It was introduced into India in 1802 by Sir 

 John Sinclair, and must have been rapidly disseminated, for I find a specimen in 

 Rottler's Herbarium (named P. meneri, miliacea, var. (?) P. nodosum, nob.) received 

 from Heyne, with the date, June 3, 1808. There is no record of its introduction into 

 Ceylon, but it is included in Moon's Catalogue, published in 1824." 



