HITCHCOCK AND CHASE — NORTH AMERICAN PANICUM. 



237 



Alabama: Auburn, Earle & Baker 1522, 1537, Hitchcock 1331, 1336; Gateswood, 



Tracy 8426 in part; Flomaton, Hitchcock 1048. 

 Mississippi: Biloxi, Hitchcock 1080; Mississippi City, Hitchcock 1090, 1096, 1112, 



Kearney 301 in part. 

 Mexico: San Luis Potosi, Schaffner 146. 



o 139. Panicum ovale Ell. 



Panicum ovale Ell. Bot. S. C. & Ga. 1 : 123. 1816. "Grows in Carolina and Georgia. 

 Sent from St. Mary's, Georgia, by Dr. Baldwin." The type, in the Elliott Herbarium, 

 consists of the upper portion of a vernal culm with two leaves and an immature panicle 

 included at base, the culm and sheaths densely pilose with ascending hairs, the blades 

 long pilose along the margin. The ticket attached to this specimen reads: "Panicum 

 Ovale. Hab. St. Mary's Georg. Dr. Baldwin." Another vernal culm with immature 

 panicle mounted on the same sheet belongs to P. commutatum. To the culm is at- 

 tached a slip marked "64" but with no data. Since Dr. Baldwin's is the only speci- 

 men cited, the one with the Baldwin label must be considered the type, though 

 Elliott's description seems to show he had the two confused. 



Panicum ciliiferum Nash, Bull. Torrey Club 24: 195. 1897. "Type collected by 

 the writer in the 'high pine land' at Eustis, I,ake Co., Florida, March 12-31, 1894, 

 no. 147." The type, in Nash's herbarium, is the vernal form with an old autumnal 

 culm attached. The spikelets are 2.8 mm. long. In a note following the description 

 Nash states that after having examined a specimen named P. ovale by Elliott he con- 

 siders P. cilii/erum as distinct. The specimen referred to is in the Torrey Herbarium, 

 and is labeled Panicum ovale Elliott, "From Elliott." This is a puberulent narrow- 

 leaved form of P. commutatum, and is the form described in Small's Flora » as P. ovale. 



Panicum erythrocarpon Ashe, Journ. Elisha Mitchell Soc. 16 : 90. 1900. "The type 

 material was collected by the writer on the sand hills of New Hanover county, N. C, 

 May 19, 1899." The type, in Ashe's herbarium, is the vernal form, labeled, "Shady 

 slopes on the sand hills one mile north of Wilmington [New Hanover County], N. C." 



DESCRIPTION. 



Vernal plants light olive green; culms densely tufted, 20 to 50 cm. high, erect or 

 ascending, rather stout, long-pilose below with ascending or appressed hairs, often 

 nearly glabrous above, usually leafy at the base, the nodes densely bearded with short 

 spreading hairs; sheaths shorter than the internodes or the lower overlapping, ascend- 

 . ing-pilose, the upper less densely so, rarely 

 nearly glabrous; ligules composed of a ring of 

 hairs about 1 mm. long with a second sparse 

 ring 2 to 3 mm. long above it; blades firm, 

 ascending, 6 to 10 cm. long, 5 to 10 mm. wide 

 (the uppermost much smaller), sharply acumi- 

 nate, rounded at base, the upper surface usually 

 nearly glabrous except for long hairs on or near 

 the margin and base thus giving the blades the 

 appearance of being strongly ciliate, these hairs 

 occasionally wanting except at the base, the 

 lower surface appressed-pubescent; panicles 

 usually short-exserted, 5 to 9 cm. long, about as wide when fully expanded, the 

 lower branches finally spreading, rarely drooping; spikelets 2.7 to 2.9 mm. long, 1.3 

 mm. wide, oblong-elliptic, obtuse, pilose, sometimes rather sparsely so; first glume 

 one-third to nearly half the length of the spikelet, usually pointed; second glume 



Fig. 251— p. ovale. From type specimen. 



« Fl. Southeast. U. S. 102. 1903. 



