232 



CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM, 



Fig. 245. — P. languidum. From type 

 •specimen of P. unciphyllum forma pro- 

 stratum, Scribn. & Merr. 



164, 165, A. Nelson 6174, A. Nelson & E. Nelson 6037, Rydberg & 

 3545, 3547, Tweedy 580; Bighorn County, Tweedy 94. 

 California: Sonoma County, Bolander 3941; Napa County, Brewer 861; Lassen 

 Peak, Bolander 2169. 



136. Panicum languidum nom. nov. 



Panicum unciphyllum forma prostratum Scribn. & Merr. Rhodora 3 : 124. 1901, not 

 P. prostratum Lam. 1791. " South Berwick, Maine, M. L. Fernald, September 26, 

 1897." The type, in the National Herbarium, is a lax, decumbent, autumnal speci- 

 men with geniculate nodes, numerous loose branches with immature panicles, and 

 pointed spikelets 2 mm. long. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Vernal form tufted; culms 25 to 40 cm. high, weak, slender, ascending or spreading, 



pilose; sheaths shorter than the internodes, papillose-pilose; ligules about 3 mm. long; 



blades thin, lax, ascending or spreading, 4 to 7 cm. long, 4 to 9 mm. wide, acumi- 

 nate, slightly narrowed to the rounded base, 

 sparsely pilose on the upper surface, minutely 

 appressed-pubescent beneath, usually with long 

 hairs intermixed; panicles rather long-exserted, 3 

 to 6 cm. long, two-thirds to three-fourths as wide, 

 loosely flowered, the very flexuous branches finally 

 spreading or drooping, the spikelets on long, 

 mostly divaricate, flexuous pedicels, the axis and 

 branches sparsely long-pilose; spikelets 2 mm. 

 long, 1 mm. wide, elliptic, acute, pilose; first 

 glume about one-third the length of the spikelet, 

 obtuse or acute; second glume and sterile lemma 



exceeding the fruit and slightly pointed beyond it; fruit 1.5 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, 



obtuse. 



Autumnal form decumbent, with geniculate, sometimes rooting nodes, branching 



from all the nodes, the early branches nearly equaling the primary culm, repeatedly 



branching, forming a large, loose straggling clump, the ultimate blades and panicles 



scarcely reduced. 



Type U. S. National Herbarium no. 592750 collected September 26, 1897, South 



Berwick, Maine, by M. L. Fernald, being the type of P. unciphyllum forma prostratum. 

 This species somewhat resembles P. villosissimum, though much less copiously 



pilose. It may be distinguished from 



that species and from P. huachucae sil- 



vicola by the pointed spikelets 2 mm. 



long, the second glume and sterile 



lemma produced in a minute point 



beyond the fruit. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Dry or sandy open woods, Maine, 

 Massachusetts and eastern New York; 

 apparently rare. 



Maine: South Berwick, Fernald 

 in 1897, Parlin 938 (Gray 

 Herb.); Island Falls, Fernald in 1897; Mount Desert Island, Fernald in 1892 

 in part (the last two in N. E. Bot. Club Herb.). 

 Massachusetts: Ashburnham, Harris in 1896. 

 New York: Platte Clove, Catskills, Williamson in 1903 (Phila. Acad. Herb.). 



Fig. 246.— Distribution of P. languidum. 



