HITCHCOCK AND CHASE NOETH AMERICAN PANICUM. 



127 



1/ 



71. Panicum verrucosiun Muhl. 



Panicum debile Ell. Bot. S. C. & Ga. 1: 129. 1816, not Desf. 1798. No specimen nor 

 locality is cited. The type was not found in the Elliott Herbarium but the descrip- 

 tion clearly identifies the species. 



Panicum verrucosum Muhl. Descr. Gram. 113. 1817. "Habitat in N. Csesarea, Dela- 

 ware, et Georgia." The type is in the Muhlenberg Herbarium. On the sheet is written 

 "verrucosum" but there is nothing to indicate from which of the three States cited 

 the specimen came. 



Panicum umbraculum Bosc; Spreng. Syst. Veg. 1: 314. 1825. This and the follow- 

 ing are names found in the Willdenow Herbarium, on specimens collected by Bosc, 

 and published as synonyms of P. verrucosum Muhl. Both belong to this species. 



Panicum rugosum Bosc; Spreng. loc. cit. 



Fig. 121. — P. verrucosum. From type 

 specimen. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Plants bright green, solitary or few together, lax, at first erect but soon decumbent 

 at base, and ascending or widely spreading; culms slender, 20 cm. to 1.5 meters high; 



sheaths shorter than the internodes, ciliate; blades 

 thin, lax, flat, 5 to 20 cm. long, 4 to 10 mm. wide, 

 somewhat narrowed toward the base, gradually nar- 

 rowed to the acuminate apex, glabrous; panicles 

 finally exserted, 5 to 30 cm. long, about as wide, 

 diffuse, small panicles often produced at the lower 

 nodes, at least the ultimate branchlets scabrous, the 

 branches mostly solitary, the branchlets bearing a 

 few short-pediceled spikelets, mostly in twos, toward 

 the ends; spikelets 1.8 to 2.1 mm. long, about 1 mm. 

 wide, elliptic-obovate, subacute; first glume one- 

 fourth the length of the spikelet or less; second glume and sterile lemma warty, 

 glabrous, the glume shorter than the fruit at maturity; fruit 1.8 to 2 mm. long, 1 mm. 

 wide, elliptic, acute. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Wet, mostly shady soil, Atlantic Coastal Plain, Massachusetts to Florida and Texas; 

 also in Indiana and Tennessee. 



Massachusetts: Springfield, Andrews 23; Plymouth, Oakes. 

 New York: Staten Island, Tyler 



in 1898. 

 New Jersey: Atsion, Chase 3546; 



Egg Harbor, Scribner in 1886, 



Vasey in 1884; English town, 



Pearce in 1884. 

 Pennsylvania: Tinicum, Diffen- 



baugh in 1868, Smith 99. 

 Indiana: Dune Park, Chase 918, 



Hill 177 in 1898. 

 Delaware: EUendale, Commons 



231. 



Maryland: Eastern Shore, Canfcy. 

 District of Columbia: Chase 5440, Dewey 408, Kearney in 1895; Steele in 



1896, Ward in 1878 and 1879. 

 Virginia: Parksley, Warbur ton in 1903; Munden, Mackenzie 1&71; Portsmouth, 



Noyes 84; Virginia Beach, Britton in 1895, Hitchcock 164, Kearney 2053; 



Suffolk, Boettcher 471; Dismal Swamp, Chase 3660. 



Fig. 122. — Distribution of P. verrucosum. 



