HITCHCOCK AND CHASE NOKTH AMERICAN PANICUM. 



177 



99. Panicum bicknellii Nash. 



Panicum bicknellii Nash, Bull. Torrey Club 24: 193. 1897. "The type specimens 

 were collected by Mr? Eugene P. Bicknell * * * in Bronx Park [N. Y.] on July 

 21, 1895." The type, in Nash's herbarium, is the early branching form of the plant. 

 The spikelets are sparsely pubescent. 



Panicum nemopanthum Ashe, Journ. Elisha Mitchell Soc. 15:42. 1898. "Type 

 material collected by the writer April, 1895, in the Penitentiary woods, Raleigh, 

 N. C." The type could not be found in Ashe's herbarium, but a specimen from the 

 type material labeled in Ashe's handwriting is in the National Herbarium. This is a 

 single vernal culm with an immature, partly included panicle; the spikelets are 

 nearly or quite glabrous. 



Panicum bushii Nash, Bull. Torrey Club 26 : 568. 1899. "Collected by B. F. Bush, 

 in dry ground, in McDonald Co., Missouri, July 24, 1893 no. 413." The type in the 

 Columbia University Herbarium consists of a small tuft of branching culms, the pri- 

 mary panicles devoid of spikelets; most of the primary nodes sparsely pilose, most of 

 the secondary ones glabrous; the spikelets glabrous. 



Although the types of P. nemopanthum and of P. bushii have glabrous spikelets, 



later collections of the species in the Peniten- 

 tiary woods, Raleigh (Ashe & Chase 3092) and 

 from B. F. Bush have pubescent spikelets. 

 These two types are exceptional specimens. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Vernal form bluish green; culms erect or as- 

 cending, 30 to 50 cm. high, glabrous, or the low- 

 ermost portion puberulent, nodes sparsely 

 bearded or glabrous; sheaths glabrous or the 

 lower sparsely villous especially above the nodes; 

 blades stiffly ascending, or somewhat spreading, 

 elongated, 8 to 15 cm. long, 3 to 8 mm. wide, the uppermost usually longest, narrowed 

 toward the base, there usually cilia te with a few stiff hairs; panicles ovoid, 5 to 8 cm. 

 long, about two-thirds as wide, the branches ascending, bearing few long-pediceled 

 spikelets, these 2.3 to 2.8 mm. long, 1.1 to 1.2 mm. wide, oblong-elliptic, sparsely 

 pubescent or rarely glabrous; first glume about one-third the length of the spikelet, 

 subacute; second glume and sterile lemma equal, covering the fruit at maturity; fruit 

 2 mm. long, 1.1 mm. wide, elliptic, subacute. 



Autumnal form erect, branching from the middle nodes, forming a loose, bushy 

 crown of stiffly ascending blades not much reduced and overtopping the narrow, 

 few-flowered panicles. 



The long upper blades in this species 

 are noticeable . Vernal specimens some- 

 times resemble P. werneri. 



One specimen, Bush 3246, has pilose 

 sheaths and scattered long hairs on the 

 blades. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Dry, sterile or rocky woods, Connect- 

 icut to Georgia and Missouri-. 



Connecticut: Norwich, Graves 15 



in 1899. 

 New York: Bronx Park, Bicknell 



in 1895; Cedarhurst, Bicknell in 1903; Rockville Center, Bicknell in 1906; 

 Woodmere, Bicknell in 1904; Rockport, Bicknell 1905. 

 41616°— vol 15—10 12 



Fig. 172.— P. bicknellii. From typt 

 specimen. 



Fig. 173.— Distribution of P. bicknellii. 



