HITCHCOCK AND CHASE NOETH AMERICAN PANICUM. 



95 



the plant described by Elliott as P. amarum that we are forced to apply his name to 

 the species named P. amaroides. In the herbarium of the Philadelphia Academy is 

 a specimen of this species bearing two tickets reading respectively "Panicum 

 amarum" and "Elliott S. C," the former being in the handwriting found in the 

 Elliott Herbarium. While this may not be the type, it would seem to be an authentic 

 specimen. A second specimen of this species in the same herbarium bears a ticket 

 reading "Georg. Baldw." 



Panicum amarum minor[us] Vasey & Scribn. U. S. Dept. Agr. Div. Bot. Bull. 8 : 38. 

 1889. "Fortress Monroe, Va., and northward, near the coast." The type specimen, 

 in the National Herbarium, was collected by Dr. Vasey at Fort Monroe, Va., in 1879. 



Panicum amaroides Scribn. & Merr. U. S. Dept. Agr. Div. Agrost. Circ. 29: 5./. 1. 

 1901. Based on P. amarum, minus Vasey & Scribn. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Plants glaucous and glabrous throughout; culms solitary from the nodes of exten- 

 sively creeping, horizontal rootstocks, simple or occasionally branching from the 

 lower nodes, 30 cm. to 1 meter high; sheaths overlapping but commonly narrow and 

 partially exposing the short, very glaucous internodes; ligules dense and silky, about 

 3 mm. long; blades ascending or spreading, thick, 10 to 30 cm. long, 5 to 12 mm. wide, 

 broadest at the base, flat below, involute toward the tip, margins smooth; panicles 

 short-exserted or included at base, one-fourth to one-third the height of the plant, 

 or sometimes more, not over 3 cm. wide, mostly few-flowered, the distant, appressed 

 branches bearing scattered, short, appressed branchlets with approximate, short- 

 pediceled spikelets; spikelets 5 to 6.5 mm. long, about 2 mm. wide and as much as 3 

 mm. thick, narrowly ovate, acuminate, strongly nerved; first glume clasping, two- 

 thirds to three-fourths the length of the spikelet, acuminate, 7 to 9-nerved, the 

 midnerve usually scabrous toward the apex; second glume slightly longer than the 

 sterile lemma, both much exceeding the fruit, 9-nerved, the midnerves scabrous 

 toward the apex; fruit 3.5 mm. long, about 1.5 mm. wide, narrowly ovate. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Sandy seashores and coast dunes, Connecticut to Georgia; also on islands off the 

 coast of Mississippi. An important sand binder. 



Connecticut: New Haven, Winton in 1887. 



New York: Long Island, Miller, Young in 1872; Staten Island, Tyler in 1895. 



New Jersey: Cape May, Burk in 

 1881 (Hitchcock Herb.). 



Delaware: Cedar Neck, Com- 

 mons 'v28 in 1875; Lewes, 

 Hitchcock 227 ; without locality, 

 Canhy 



Maryland: Bay Bidge, Scribner 

 in 1897. 



Virginia: Fort Monroe, McCarthy 

 in 1883, Vasey in 1879; Ports- 

 mouth, Noyes 66 in 1895; 

 Ocein View, Vasey in 1890; 

 Virginia Beach, Hitchcock 

 169, Kearney 2064, Mackenzie 1736, Williams 3089. 



North Carolina: Ocracoke Island, -Eearney 2317; Brunswick County, McCarthy; 

 Wilmington, Hitchcock 441; without locality, McCarthy in 1885. 



South Carolina: Isle of Palms, Chase 4555. 



Georg a: Tybee Island, Harper 742. 



Mississippi: Horn Island, Tracy 2854 and in 1897. 



Fig. 86.— Distribution of P. amarum. 



