398 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



Climbing to a height of 15 meters or more, repeatedly branching, swinging 

 down from the trees in great curtains, or festooning lower growth, the linear 

 or filiform blades crowded on short sterile branchlets, these arranged in dense 

 whorls like great pompons at the distant nodes ; inflorescence of numerous slen- 

 der wiry, not zigzag racemes borne in the whorls of branchlets, the appressed 

 rather distant spikelets about 1 cm. long. 



Dryish thickets and wooded slopes, northern West Indies. Originally de- 

 scribed from eastern Cuba, the type being Wright 738. 



Bahamas (Andros, Great Exuma, New Providence), Cuba, Porto Rico 

 (Maricao, Sabana Grande, and on the island of Vieques), and St. Thomas. 



2. Arthrostylidium sarmentosum Pilger in Urban, Symb. Antill. 4: 108. 1903. 

 Culms apparently herbaceous, not over 3 mm. thick, high-climbing and 



pendent from trees as in the preceding ; branchlets commonly 10 to 15 cm. long, 

 leafy, in distant usually dense whorls, the foliage pale green, drying glaucous, 

 the divergent blades 3.5 to 5 cm. long, 3 to 5 mm. wide, rather thin; inflo- 

 rescence of numerous short-exserted terminal and axillary zigzag racemes of 

 2 to 5 narrow pubescent spikelets. 



Along streams and trails ; wet mountain forests, at higher altitudes, Province 

 of Oriente, Cuba (Monte Verde, Yateras), and Porto Rico. Originally de- 

 scribed from sterile specimens from Porto Rico, Heller 1089, Sierra de Luquillo, 

 and Sintenis 354, 4046. Collected in flower only once 1 (Chase 6730, Amer. 

 Gr. Nat. Herb. 399 2 ) on the north slope of El Yunque, Porto Rico. 



3. Arthrostylidium distichum Pilger in Urban, Symb. Antill. 2: 342. 1901. 

 Branches solitary or in small fascicles, the approximate lanceolate-acuminate 



spreading blades about 2.5 cm. long. 



Only known from the type collection, Wright 3808 from Rangel, Pinar del 

 Rio, Cuba. 



4. Arthrostylidium fimbriatum Griseb. Mem. Amer. Acad. n. ser. 8: 531. 1862. 

 Branches solitary (?), appressed; blades commonly reflexed, rather rigid, 



narrowly cuneate; racemes terminating nearly leafless branches, the axis 

 straight, the spikelets appressed. Originally described as 1 to 3 feet tall, but 

 probably several meters tall. 



Dense mountain woods, eastern Cuba (Wright 1554, the type specimen, and 

 Loma Mensura, Shafer 3771). 



5. Arthrostylidium prestoei Munro, Kew Bull. Misc. Inf. 1895: 186. 1895; 



Pilger in Urban, Symb. Antill. 2: 338. 1901. 



Culms rather robust, bearing at the distant nodes dense whorls of slender 

 branches about 30 cm. long, these bearing 1 or 2 rather thin elongate-lanceolate 

 blades toward their summits and terminating in a densely flowered, mostly 

 one-sided raceme. 



Trinidad and Colombia. Described from specimens collected by Prestoe in 

 Trinidad (Trm. Bot. Oard. Herd. 1675) and from plants cultivated at Kew. 

 Pound also in Caparo Forest (Broadioay 4922). 



6. Arthrostylidium urbanii Pilger in Urban, Symb. Antill. 2: 339. 1901. 

 Arundinaria urbanii Hack Oesterr. Bot. Zeitschr. 53: 69. 1903. 



Rather robust, bearing stiff wiry branches in whorls at the distant nodes, 

 the rather rigid sublinear blades often reflexed, readily falling from the crowded 

 overlapping sheaths ; branches terminating in slender racemes, the spikelets 

 appressed to the straight axis. 



1 Chase, Bot. Gaz. 58: 277-279. pi. 21. 1914. 3 See footnote, p. 405. 



