300 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



Racemes 100 or more, the axis elongate 7. A. pellitus. 



Racemes 4 to several. 



Blades glabrous ; racemes several ; spikelets acute. 



6. A. macrostachyus. 



Blades, at least when young, ciliate and more or less villous; 



racemes few ; spikelets obtuse 5. A. equitans. 



1. Axonopus appendiculatus (Presl). 



Paspalum appendiculatum Presl, Rel. Haenk. 1: 211. 1830. 



A slender sparingly branching annual with long smooth orange-colored 

 internodes,' thin yellowish green, sparsely hispid or glabrous, fiat blades and 2 

 to 8 subdigitate racemes 3 to 6 cm. long, the flat green rachis bearing a row of 

 stiff golden hairs on each margin and down the center between the 2 rows of 

 small glabrous spikelets sunken in the rachis. A strikingly beautiful species. 



Open grassy hillsides, Trinidad (St. Joseph, HitcJicock 10173) and northern 

 South America. Originally described from Panama. 



2. Axonopus aureus Beauv. Ess. Agrost. 12. 1812. 

 Paspalum exasperatum Nees, Agrost. Bras. 81. 1829. 

 Panicum cliry sites Steud. Syn. PI. Glum. 1: 38. 1854. 



A tall slender branching perennial with wiry compressed culms, rather firm 

 spreading flat .blades, and a handsome inflorescence of 4 to 15 subdigitate slen- 

 der golden-brown racemes, the stiff orange yellow hairs in tufts below the 

 spikelets as well as along the margins. 



Wet sandy savannas, Porto Rico and northern South America. Type locality 

 not indicated in the original description. This species is described by Grise- 

 bach 1 under the name Paspalum pulchrum. 



Porto Rico (Happy Hollow, near Rio Piedras) and Trinidad (Piarco Sa- 

 vanna). 



3. Axonopus capillaris (Lam.) Chase, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 24: 133. 



1911. 



Paspalum capillare Lam. Tabl. Encycl. 1 : 176. 1791. 



Paspalum minutum Trin. Linnaea 10: 293. 1836. 



A slender ascending branching, nearly glabrous annual, with thin blades 2.5 

 to 5 cm. long and about 4 mm. wide and with 2 or 3 delicate racemes about 2.5 

 cm. long on long subcapillary peduncles.. 



Forming patches on moist open ground, Central America to Trinidad (Pitch 

 Lake, Hitchcock 10101) and Brazil. Originally described from tropical Amer- 

 ica, the exact locality not given. The type of Paspalum minutum is from Peru. 



4. Axonopus compressus (Swartz) Beauv. Ess. Agrost. 12. 1812. Cabpet gbass. 

 Milium compressum Swartz, Prodr. Veg. Ind. Occ. 24. 1788. 



Paspalum platicaulon Poir. in Lam. Encycl. Suppl. 5: 34. 1804. 



Paspalum compressum Raspail, Ann. Sci. Nat. 5 : 301. 1825. 



Digitaria platicaulis Desv. Opusc. 62. 1831. 



Digitaria domingensis Desv. ; Kunth, Enum. PI. 1 : 49. 1833, as synonym of 

 Paspalum platycaule Poir. 



JfPaspalum filostachyum A. Rich.; Steud. Syn. PI. Glum. 1: 20. 1854. 



Anastrophus compressus Schlecht. ; Doell in Mart. Fl. Bras. 2 2 : 102. 1877. 



A nearly glabrous perennial, under favorable conditions producing long leafy 

 stolons with short broad obtuse blades, the flowering culms erect or ascending, 

 compressed, with rather thin blades 8 to 10 mm. wide, and 2 to 5 slender racemes 

 along a short axis, 2 or 3 secondary peduncles often produced from the upper 



1 Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 543. 1864. 



