238 



CONTRIBUTIONS FKOM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



slightly shorter than the fruit and sterile lemma at maturity; fruit 2.2 mm. long, 

 1.2 mm. wide, elliptic, obtuse. 



Autumnal form spreading-decumbent, the stiff culms rather loosely branching from 

 the middle and upper nodes, the ultimate branchlets crowded at the ends of the 

 primary branches, the reduced blades erect; winter leaves very firm, conspicuously 

 ciliate; short culms with tufted branches sometimes formed during the winter, the 

 green bushy crown persistent at the base of the tall vernal culms. 



Curtiss's no. 4877 is referred here although the specimens resemble P. common- 

 sianum, and the ligule is only 1 mm. long, as in that species; the spikelets, however, 

 are those of P. ovale. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Dry sandy, woods, North Carolina to Florida, also in Texas. 



North Carolina: Near Wilmington, Ashe in 1899, Chase 4589. 



South Carolina: Isle of Palms, Hitchcock 107; Aiken, Ravenel. 



Florida: Duval County, Curtiss 3583* in part; Jacksonville, Curtiss 4877, 5866, 

 5813; Lake City, Combs 138, 

 145, Hitchcock 550, 1013; Madi- 

 son, Combs 225; Chattahoo- 

 chee, Tracy 3617; Gainesville, 

 Chase 4250, 4261; Old Town, 

 Combs 888; Eustis, Curtiss 

 6616, Nash 75, 103, 147, 1118, 

 1518, 1857; Lake Harris, Chase 

 4118; Tavares, Hitchcock 820; 

 Grasmere, Combs 1080; San- 

 ford, Hitchcock 785, 787; Titus- 

 ville, Hitchcock 761^; Ormond, 

 Hitchcock 160; Dunedin, Tracy 



6725; Braidentown, Hitchcock 968; Lakeland, Hitchcock 833, 846, 847, 851; 

 Myers, Chase 4174, Hitchcock 900, 914, Lee Co. PI. 474; Miami, Chase 3866, 

 3947, Hitchcock 634, 661, 668, 677, 719, Pollard & Collins 223; Homestead, 

 Hitchcock 688. 



Texas: Waller County, Thurow 17 in 1906. 



Fig. 252.— Distribution of P. ovale. 



140. Panicum scoparioides Ashe. 



Panicum scoparioides Ashe, Journ. Elisha Mitchell Soc. 15: 53. 1898. "Based on 

 No. 283, ex. Herb. A. Commons. Dry soil. Centreville, Del. June 1873. Distributed 

 sub nom. P. Scribnerianum Nash." This specimen could not be found in Ashe's 



herbarium, but a specimen bearing the above 

 name and data is in the National Herbarium and 

 is doubtless the type. a This consists of four vernal 

 culms with immature panicles partly included in 

 the uppermost sheaths. 



description. 



Vernal plants light green; culms few to several 

 in a tuft, 30 to 50 cm. high, slender, erect or ascend- 

 ing, sparsely papillose-hispid with ascending hairs 

 or nearly glabrous, the upper internodes shortened; 

 nodes sometimes sparsely bearded; sheaths papillose-hispid to nearly glabrous, the 

 lower distant, the upper approximate, sometimes overlapping; ligules 2 to 3 mm. 

 long; blades firm, ascending, 7 to 10 cm. long, 6 to 10 mm. wide, tapering to the 



a See note on type of P. huachucae, page 215. 



Fig. 253. — P. scoparioides. From type 

 specimen in National Herbarium. 



