No. 4. 

 PASPALUM LIVIDUM Triu. 



Plant perennial, coarse, somewhat tufted on a short rootstock. 



Culms few in a place, erect, or decumbent, geniculate below, solid, terete, 2 to 

 3 feet tall. 



Leaves; radical mostly scarious; of culm (! to !); sheaths equaling or exceeding 

 internode, loose, often compressed and open, lower ones often pubescent; blades 

 fiat, hispid above and below toward the tip, :» lines wide. 'I to (5 inches long; ligule 

 a tawny, lacerate, membranaceous fringe, \ line long, decurrent. 



Inflorescence a racemose panicle of 4 to 8 approximate spikes, alternate on the 

 flattened axis, 2 to 4 inches long; spikes unilateral, sessile, 1 to 1.1 inches long; 

 rachis flat and smooth, i line wide, usually purplish. 



Spikelets crowded, usually in 4 rows, sessile or on short pedicels, oblanceolate, 

 flatfish, 1-fl.owered, 1 to 1{- lines long; first glume broadly ovate, acute, slightly 

 convex, slightly roughened on back. 3-nerved, lateral nerves marginal and joining 

 midnerve at apex, 1 line long; second glume same but flat and slightly smaller; 

 floral glume, indurated, round on back, with inrolled margins, very obscurely 

 •'5-nerved. § line long; palet broadly oval, indurated, nearly fiat, with irregular, 

 hyaline margins below enfolding the seed, obscurely 2-nerved, nearly I line long. 



Grain; a careful search through is specimens produced but one perfect grain 

 and that immature, but old enough to show the form, obovate, rounded, flattened 

 on both sides % line long. 



Plate IV; a, first empty glume; b, second empty glume; c, floral glume, 

 stamens, and pistil ; <l, palet,, ventral view, wil h 1 wo niembranaceouslobesturned out. 



Found in southwestern Texas; common in Mexico. 



