HITCHCOCK AND CHASE NORTH AMERICAN PANICUM. 223 



DESCRIPTION. 



Vernal culms leafy, ascending from a geniculate base, 20 to 70 cm. high, densely 

 villous with soft, spreading hairs, rarely glabrate above, the nodes more or less bearded; 

 sheaths velvety papillose villous or the upper glabrate; ligule 2 to 3 mm. long; blades 

 ascending or spreading, 4 to 8 cm. long, 6 to 13 mm. wide, lanceolate, slightly cordate at 

 base, sharply acuminate, usually ciliate, the lower sur- 

 face velvety papillose puberulent, the upper surface 

 from appressed papillose pubescent to long-villous, or 

 nearly glabrous except for long hairs near the base or 

 margin; panicles 3 to 10 cm. long, about as wide, the 

 axis usually villous, the branches flexuous, the lower 

 spreading or even reflexed; spikelets 1.8 to 1.9 mm. 

 long, 0.9 mm. wide, obovate, turgid, abruptly subacute, 

 pilose; first glume about one-third the length of the 

 spikelet, subacute; second glume and sterile lemma 

 barely equaling the fruit at maturity; fruit 1.3 to 1.4 mm. long, 0.9 mm. wide, 

 elliptic, abruptly acute. « 



Autumnal form appearing early, the primary culms branching at all but the upper- 

 most nodes before the maturity of the primary panicles, these branches often exceed- 

 ing the culm, more or less zigzag, repeatedly branching, the ultimate branchlets in 

 dense, short, flabellate fascicles, the reduced blades flat or involute-pointed, the long 

 hairs on the margins and upper surface usually conspicuous. 



Fig. 229.— p. acuviinatum. From 

 type specimen. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Sandy pine woods, the West Indies; also in the United States of Colombia. 

 Cuba: Herradura, Hitchcock 140, Tracy 9078; Pinar del Rio, Palmer & Riley 447; 



Wright 3874; Isle of Pines, Curtiss 307, 328, Palmer & Riley 989, 1083, A. A. 



Taylor m 1901. 

 Jamaica: Swartz, Hart 736. 

 Santo Domingo: Poiteau (Paris Herb.). 

 Porto Rico: Santurce, Heller in 1903, Maricao, Sintenis 355; Fajardo, Sintenis 



1224 in part; Lares, Sintenis 5908. 

 Colombia: Near Jamundi, Pittier 932, 982a. 



^o 128. Panicum auburne Ashe. 



Panicum auburne Ashe, N. C. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 175: 115. 1900. "Auburn, 

 Ala., May 7, 1898. Collected by Professors F. S. Earle and C. Baker, of the Alabama 

 Biological Survey, at Auburn, Ala., May 7, 1898. No. 1527." The type specimen, 

 in Ashe's herbarium, consists of several immature vernal 

 culms with portions of the dead autumnal culms of the pre- 

 ceding year attached . 



description. 



Vernal form grayish velvety -villous throughout; culms 

 tufted, 20 to 50 cm. high, geniculate at base, widely spread- 

 ing, soon becoming branched and decumbent, rather slender, 

 densely papillose silky villous below, velvety with copious 

 silky hairs intermixed above; sheaths usually about half the length of the internodes, 

 villous like the culms; ligules 3 to 4 mm. long; blades rather thin, ascending, 3 to 7 

 cm. long, 3 to 5 mm. wide, acuminate, slightly narrowed toward the base, the upper 



Fig. 230.— p. auburne. 

 From type specimen. 



