92 



CONTRIBUTIONS FEOM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



ixj 



Fig. 81. — P. virgatum cubense. 

 type specimen. 



From 



44a. Panicum virgatum cubense Griseb. 



Panicum virgatum cubense Griseb. Cat. PI. Cub. 233. 1866. The only specimen 

 mentioned by Grisebach is, "Wr. a. 1865," that is, collected in Cuba by Wright in 



1865. The type, in the Grisebach Herbarium, bears 

 the number 183 and is labeled "Low savannas, 

 Hanabana, May 19." • 



Panicum virgatum ohtusum Wood, Bot. & Flor. 

 392. 1874. "N. J." [New Jersey]. The whereabouts 

 of the type, if it be in existence, is not known. 

 The diagnosis ' ' Panicle contracted ; spikelets smaller, 

 not pointed, obtusish," seems sufficiently to indi- 

 cate this subspecies. 



Panicum virgatum breviramosum Nash, Bull. Tor- 

 rey Club 23 : 150. 1896. "Collected by Dr. Small 

 in clay soil in the pine lands about Augusta, 

 Georgia, where it was common, June 27-July 1, 

 1895." The type, in Columbia University Herba- 

 rium, is a slender plant with narrow panicles about 12 cm. long and 3 to 4 cm. wide, 

 rather compactly flowered, and as a whole very like Wright's no. 183 mentioned above. 



H r DESCRIPTION. 



Differs from P. virgatum in having culms more slender than usual in the species, 

 solitary or few in a clump, usually narrow panicles with ascending branches, and 

 smaller spikelets, 2.8 to 3.2 mm. long, 

 the first glume usually about half the 

 length of the spikelet, acute but usually 

 not acuminate-pointed, the second 

 glume and sterile lemma about equal 

 and but slightly exceeding the fruit, 

 the latter about 2 mm. long. 



This combination of characters fails 

 to hold throughout. A few of the 

 specimens cited below have open pan- 

 icles, but the small, obtuse spikelets 

 with shorter first glume; others have 

 the panicle characteristic of the sub- 

 species but an acuminate-pointed first glume to the small spikelets. The following 

 represent these intermediate specimens: Connecticut: Graves 244; New Jersey: 

 Pearce in 1884; North Carolina: McCarthy in 1885; Florida: Chase 3859, 3860, 

 Hitchcock 743, Hume 37. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Pine woods, the Atlantic Coastal Plain from Connecticut to Florida; also in the 

 Bermudas and Cuba. 



Connecticut: Groton, Graves 244. 



New York: Aquebogue, Scribner in 1872 (Hitchcock Herb.). 



New Jersey: Atsion, Chase 3573; New Durham, Van Sickle in 1895; without 

 locality, Pearce in 1884. 



^Pennsylvania: Philadelphia, Smith 109. 



Maryland: College Park, Novik in 1907. 



Virginia: Ashland, DeChalmot; Portsmouth, Noyes 87. 



North Carolina: Edenton, Kearney 1899; Tarboro, McCarthy in 1885; Wil- 

 mington, Chase 3144, Coville 104, Kearney 267b; Henderson ville, Biltmore 

 Herb. 700e. 



Fig. 82. — Distribution of P. virgatum cubense. 



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