96 



CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBABIUM. 



47. Panicum amarulum sp. nov. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Fig. 87.— P. amarulum. From type specimen. 



Plants glaucous but less so than in P. amarum, glabrous throughout, cespitose 



in large bunches sometimes as much as a meter across, 1 to 2 meters high; culms 



simple above the base, stout, some- 

 times 1 cm. thick; sheaths mostly- 

 overlapping; ligules dense, about 3 

 mm. long; blades erect or ascending, 

 20 to 50 cm. long, 5 to 12 mm. wide, 

 broadest at the base, more or less 

 involute, pilose at the base on the 

 upper surface; panicles finally ex- 

 serted, one-third the height of the 

 plant or more, 5 to 10 cm. wide, 

 slightly nodding, compact, densely 

 flowered, the long, fascicled branches 

 erect but more or less spreading at 

 their tips, spikelet-bearing from the 

 base; spikelets short-pediceled, 4.3 to 

 5.5 mm. long, 1.7 to 2 mm. wide, 

 narrowly ovate, acuminate, strongly 



nerved; first glume half to two-thirds as long as the spikelet, acuminate, 5 to 



7-nerved; second glume slightly longer than the sterile lemma, both 7 to 9-nerved, 



pointed beyond the fruit; fruit 3 to 3.5 mm. long, about 1.4 mm. wide, narrowly 



ovate, bluntly pointed. 

 Type IT. S. National Herbarium no. 592748, collected September 24, 1900, Virginia 



Beach, Va., by T. A. Williams (no. 3090). 

 This is the species to which the name P. amarum was restricted by Scribner and 



Merrill, « Nash,& and Hitchcock, c when this species and the preceding^ came to 



be regarded as distinct. 

 The name here proposed is an attempt to associate this species with the name it 



has so long borne, and also refers to the 



slightly bitter taste of the foliage. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Sandy seashores and coast dunes, 

 Virginia to Florida and west to Louisi- 

 ana; also in the Bahamas. 



Virginia: Norfolk, Kearney 292; 

 Ocean View, Kearney 1775, 

 Vasey in 1890; Lynn Ha- 

 ven, Hitchcock 440; Virginia 

 Beach, Hitchcock 168, Kear- 

 ney 2021, 2063, Mackenzie 1725, Williams 3090. 

 Florida: Indian River, Curtiss 3578; Cape Malabar, Curtiss in 1879; Lake Worth 

 Inlet, Curtiss 5527; Sea Breeze, Webber 465; Miami, Chase 3899; Cape Florida, 



oU. S. Dept. Agr. Div. Agrost. Circ. 29 : 5. 1901. 



& Britton, Man. ed. 2. 1048. 1905. 



cGray, Man. ed. 7. 104. 1908. 



d See note under P. amarum Ell. p. 94. 



Distribution of P. amarulum. 



