HITCHCOCK AND CHASE NORTH AMERICAN PANICUM. 



307 



Tennessee: Hiwassee Gorge, Kearney 327; Wolf Creek, Kearney 972, 973, and in 

 1894; Knoxvflle, Ruth 61; La vergne, Biltmore Herb. 2984a; Kingston Springe, 

 Gattinger in 1882; Jackson, Bain in 1893; Greenhill, Gattinger in 1881. 



Alabama: Scottsboro, Chase 4504; Auburn, Earle & Baler 1531, Hitchcock 1319, 

 1328, 1339; Tuskegee, Carver 60, 88, 93, 94; Blount County, Eggert22; Etowah 

 County, Eggert 7; Flomaton, Hitchcock 1049; Mobile, Mohr. 



Mississippi: Starkville, Tracy in 1888; Enterprise, Tracy 3296 in part; Biloxi, 

 Tracy 4577 in part, Tracy in Pollard Distr. 1416; Ocean Springs, Earle in 

 1895; Petit Bois Island, Tracy 4577 in part; Bayou Gravelin, Tracy 4573; Mis- 

 sissippi City, Hitchcock 1104, 1108. 



Arkansas: Fulton, Bush 234, 1450. 



Louisiana: Calhoun, Ball 66, Hitchcock 1268, 1274, 1286, 1291; Shreveport, Hitch- 

 cock 1253; Alexandria, Ball 625; Plaquemines Parish, Langlois 39. 



Texas: Houston, Bebb 1242, Hall 831, Nealley 18, Ravenel 46; Texarkana, figZ^gr 

 4083; Columbia, Bush 1224; Grand Saline, Reverchon 4143; Palestine, 

 Plank 55. 



185. Panicum mutabile Scribn. & Smith. 



Panicum mutabile Scribn. & Smith; Nash in Small, Fl. Southeast. U. S. 103. 1903. 

 On page 1327 is the following citation: "Type, Biloxi, Miss., Tracy no. 3074, 1896 

 in Herb. Nash." The type, in Nash's herbarium, is the early branching form, the 

 blades from the basal shoots large, 10 to 15 cm. long, 13 to 24 mm. wide, prominently 

 ciliate almost to the apex, the culm blades ciliate toward the base only. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Vernal plants blue green, glaucous; culms solitary or few in a tuft, erect, 30 to 

 70 cm. high, glabrous or rarely minutely pubescent; sheaths much shorter than the 

 internodes, glabrous except the usually sparsely ciliate margin; ligules very short, 

 membranaeeous-fimbriate; blades horizontally spreading, 6 to 15 cm. long, 8 to 20 

 mm. wide, tapering to both ends, rather thin, glabrous on both surfaces, ciliate on the 



margin toward the cordate base or the lower 

 ciliate nearly to the apex; panicles 7 to 15 cm. 

 long, about as wide, very loosely few-flowered; 

 spikelets 2.9 to 3 mm. long, 1.2 mm. wide, 

 elliptic, minutely pointed, pubescent; first 

 glume about one-third as long as the spikelet, 

 subacute; second glume and sterile lemma 

 equaling or slightly exceeding the fruit; fruit 

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

 Autumnal form erect or reclining, sparingly 

 branching from the middle and upper nodes, 

 the branches longer than the internodes, finally 

 producing toward the ends fascicles of shortened branchlets with somewhat reduced 

 leaves. 



This species differs from P. commutatum in the glaucous blue green color, the more 

 slender culms, solitary or few in a tuft, the glabrous sheaths, the narrower blades and 

 the conspicuously ciliate basal blades. In herbarium specimens the glaucous color 

 may be seen best on the culm below the nodes. 



Fig. 346.— P. mutabile. From type specimen. 



