HITCHCOCK AND CHASE — NORTH AMERICAN PANICUM. 



167 



N. C, in June 1899." The type, in Ashe's herbarium, consists of two single vernal 

 plants, with slender, villous culms, sheaths less villous, blades nearly glabrous on one 

 plant, sparsely long-pilose on the other, the panicles overmature. 



Panicum pungens Muhl.; Scribn. & Merr. U. S. Dept. Agr. Div. Agrost. Circ. 27: 2. 

 1900, not Poir. 1816. This is mentioned as a herbarium name of P. setaceum Muhl., of 

 which it is a typonym. 



This is the species described in Britten's Manual a and in Small's Flora & under the 

 name Panicum neuranthum Griseb. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Vernal culms numerous in a tuft, ascending from a spreading base, appressed- 

 pubescent below, glabrate above, 20 to 50 cm. or, in shaded situations, 60 cm. or more 

 high, the nodes more or less pubescent but not bearded; lower sheaths villous, the 

 upper glabrous except the ciliate margin; blades stiff, spreading or ascending, nar- 

 rowed to an involute point, glabrous or the lower sparsely pilose, somewhat papillose- 

 hispid on the margin at base, the middle culm blades 4 to 6 cm. long, rarely longer, 

 2 to 5 mm. wide, the uppermost shorter, usually only 1 to 2 cm. long and 1 to 2 mm. 



wide; panicles open, 3 to 7 cm. long, the flexuous 

 branches spreading at maturity; spikelets 1.9 to 2 

 mm. long, 1.1 mm. wide, obovate, blunt, basal 

 attenuation short; first glume about one-fourth 

 the length of the spikelet, obtuse or pointed; 

 second glume and sterile lemma equal, papillose- 

 pubescent; fruit 1.6 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, oval- 

 elliptic, glabrous at the apex. 



Autumnal form consisting of numerous bushy- 

 branched culms 10 to 30 cm. long, spreading and 

 forming dense cushions, the short blades involute, sharp-pointed and usually arcuate, 

 mostly 1 to 3 cm. long; spikelets more turgid than in the vernal form. 



This species is abundant in the coast region and can be distinguished from all the 

 other species of this group within its range by the small spikelets, and the awl-like 

 blades of the autumnal state. 



Chase's no. 3097^- is referred here though it is unusually glabrous. 



Fig. 156.— p. aciculare. From type speci- 

 men in Florence Herbarium. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Sandy pine woods of the Coastal Plain from New Jersey to northern Florida and 

 eastern Texas. 



New Jersey: Cape May, Stone in 1909. 



Virginia: Vicinity of Cape Henry, Chase 2357, 2936, 3682, 5413, 5414, Hitchcock 

 345, 347, Kearney 1375, 1566, 2038, Mackenzie 1664, Williams 3099. 



North Carolina: Lake Mattamuskeet, Chase 3205; Raleigh, Chase 3084; Wil- 

 mington, Ashe in 1899, Chase 3123, 3130, 3157, 4578, 4586, Hitchcock 344, 1447, 

 1473, Kearney 247, 284 in part; Roanoke Island, Ashe in Curtiss Dist. 6451, 

 Chase 3215, 3216, 3217; Ocracoke Island, Kearney 2272; Edenton, Kearney 

 1871; Wilsons Mills, Chase 3094, 3097^, 3103, 3105; Jacksonville, ChaseZlQl; 

 Wards Mill, C^ase 3185. 



South Carolina: Orangeburg, Hitchcock 17, 346, 1375, 1404; Aiken, Ravenel in 

 1882; Fripps Island, CuthbertlWQ; Isle of Palms, CMse 4525. 



Georgia: Augusta, Kearney 215; Thomson, Bartlett 1444, 1455; Albany, Tracy 

 3640; Thomasville, Tracy 3638, 3641; Jessup, Biltmore Herb. 11866. 



oMan. 84. 1901. 



b Fl. Southeast. U. S. 95. 1903. 



