HITCHCOCK AND CHASE — NORTH AMERICAN PANICUM. 189 



108. Panicum boreale Nash. 



Panicum boreale Nash, Bull. Torrey Club 22: 421. 1895. "Moist soil, New- 

 foundland and Ontario to New York, Vermont and Minnesota. This plant was first 

 noted by the writer in 1893 in the Catskill Mts., near Cairo, N. Y." The type in 

 Nash's herbarium consists of several vernal culms with nearly mature panicles; the 

 lower sheaths sparsely papillose-pubescent at least toward the summit, the lower and 

 middle nodes bear a few reflexed hairs. The label reads: "Panicum boreale Nash., 

 n. sp. Moist soil, Cairo, Greene Co., N. Y. Alt. 1400 ft. Coll: Geo. V. Nash, June 

 28, 1893." 



DESCRIPTION. 



Fig. 189.— P. boreale. From type 

 specimen. 



Vernal form cespitose, the culms erect, or in shaded places sometimes decumbent 

 at base, usually 30 to 50 cm. high, the nodes glabrous or sometimes with a few hairs; 

 sheaths often overlapping, ciliate on the margin, glabrous, or the "lower sparsely 

 pubescent; blades erect, or in laxer forms spreading, sparsely ciliate at the rounded 

 base, otherwise glabrous, 6 to 12 cm. long, 7 to 12 mm. wide; panicles loosely rather few- 

 flowered, 5 to 10 cm. long, hardly as wide, the branches ascending or spreading; 



spikelets 2 to 2.2 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, elliptic, 

 subacute, pubescent; first glume one-third as long as 

 the spikelet or less; second glume and sterile lemma 

 sub equal, the glume scarcely as long as the fruit at 

 maturity; fruit 1.9 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, elliptic, 

 subacute. 



Autumnal form erect, sparingly branched from all 

 the nodes in late summer, the branches erect, the 

 leaves and panicles not greatly reduced. 



A weak form with geniculate base and lax spread- 

 ing blades occurs in Maine, and is represented by 

 Fernald 512 and 516, and Chase 3355. One specimen, Chase 3437, is unusual in having 

 blades that are puberulent beneath. Two specimens from northern Indiana, Bebb 

 2030 and 2831, and a specimen from Wisconsin, Cheney 2100, have stouter culms 

 and more compact and more numerously flowered panicles. A specimen from De- 

 troit, Mich., Farwell 1425, is referred to this species doubtfully because of the 

 pubescence on the back of the joint between the blade and the sheath and because 

 of the sparse papillose-pubescence on the under surface of the blades and on some 

 of the sheaths. It resembles P. mattamusheetense in habit, but the nodes are 

 glabrous and it is far out of the range of that species. A specimen from Rockville 

 Center, Long Island, Bicknell in 1903, is doubtfully referred here. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Moist open ground or woods, Newfoundland to New Jersey and west to northern 

 Indiana and Minnesota. 



Newfoundland: Exploits River, Robinson & Schrenk 222. 



Nova Scotla: Windsor, Macoun 29349; without locality, Burgess 16. 



New Brunswick: Fredericton, Fowler in 1892; Miramichi, Fowler in 1892. 



Quebec: Montmorenci Falls, Macoun 69204 (Gray Herb.). 



Maine: Dover, Fernald 239, 514; Orono, Fernald 513, 516, 517; Holden, Knight 

 60, 61; North Berwick, Parlin 1029, 1187; Brownsville, Parlin 1701, 1738, 

 1744; Canton, Parlin 2013, 2034; St. Francis, Fernald 505, Knight 58; Farm, 

 ington, Fernald 512; Hartford, Parlin 1423; Cumberland, Chamberlain 336- 

 793; Cape Elizabeth, Chase 3458; Chesterville, Chase 3277, 3355, 3437, 3443; 

 Mount Desert Island, Redfield in 1893. 



