HITCHCOCK AND CHASE NORTH AMERICAN PANICUM. 301 



Primary panicles short-exserted; sheaths not mot- 

 tled 187. P. equilaterale. 



Blades lanceolate. 



Culms crisp-puberulent; blades usually rigid, sym- 

 metrical, rarely over 10 mm. wide; spikelets 



about 2.5 mm. long 183. P. ashei. 



Culms glabrous or softly puberulent; blades firm or 

 lax; spikelets 2.7 to 3.2 mm. long. 

 Culms erect, or autumnal form leaning; blades 



symmetrical, broadly cordate 184. P. commutatum. 



Culms decumbent; blades usually unsymmetrical 

 and falcate, narrowed to the scarcely cor- 

 date base 186. P. joorii. 



183. Panicum ashei Pearson. 



Panicum umbrosum LeConte in Torr. Cat. PL N. Y. 91. 1819, not Retz. 1786. On 

 page 19 of this work the locality is given as, "In woods, Bloomingdale, N. Y." The 

 type, in the Torrey Herbarium, consists of two vernal culms. On the same sheet is 

 mounted a piece of a culm of P. dichotomum. On the label is written "Panicum 

 umbrosum mihi" in LeConte's hand, to which is added in Torrey's hand, "(Le 

 Conte)." The description as given by LeConte does not apply to this specimen in 

 all respects. The culm and flowers are said to be glabrous, which is true of the speci- 

 men of P. dichotomum, but the other characters apply better to the two culms of 

 P. ashei. 



Panicum ashei Pearson; Ashe, Journ. Elisha Mitchell Soc. 15 : 35. 1898. "P. com- 

 mutatum Schultes var. minor Vasey, Contrib. from U. S. Nat. Herb., vol. 3, No. I: 32 

 (1892). Not P. capillare var. minus Muhl. (1817)." It would appear from this cita- 

 tion that P. ashei was intended as a change of name, but "sp. nov." follows the author's 

 name, preceding the above citation, and a description is given. Hence the synonym a 

 may be regarded as an error and the first specimen cited, "New York: Ashe; Ithaca, 

 July 1898," may be taken as the type. This specimen could not be found in Ashe's 

 herbarium, but there is a duplicate in the National Herbarium sent by Ashe, and 

 labeled in his writing "Panicum Ashei, G. Pearson, Dry woods, Ithaca, N. Y. W. W. 

 Ashe, July 1898." This consists of two vernal plants beginning to branch, with 

 mature primary panicles; the culms and blades are less rigid than usual for this 

 species. In the description the culms and sheaths are said to be glabrous, but in this 

 specimen the culms and sheaths are crisp-puberulent. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Vernal plants usually conspicuously purplish, in loose clumps of few to several culms 

 from a knotted crown; culms 25 to 50 cm. high, erect, stiff and wiry, densely crisp- 

 puberulent, including the nodes; sheaths shorter than the internodes, less densely 

 puberulent, short-ciliate ; ligules obsolete; blades usually thick and firm, spreading 

 or ascending, 4 to 8 cm. long, 5 to 10 mm. wide (the lower gradually smaller), acumi- 

 nate, ciliate at the subcordate base and sometimes along the very scabrous margin, 

 glabrous on both surfaces; panicles finally long-exserted, 5 to 8 cm. long, hardly as 

 wide, loosely flowered, the branches usually in distant fascicles, ascending or spread- 

 ing; spikelets 2.4 to 2.7 mm. long, 1.2 to 1.3 mm. wide, oblong-elliptic, obtuse or 

 obscurely pointed, short-pubescent; first glume about one-third the length of the 

 spikelet, subacute; second glume and sterile lemma subequal, slightly exposing the 

 fruit at maturity, obtuse or withering to a point; fruit 2.1 mm. long, 1.1 mm. wide, 

 elliptic, minutely umbonate. 



o See synonymy under P. commutatum, page 304. 



