HITCHCOCK AND CHASE NORTH AMERICAN PANICUM. 



257 



DESCRIPTION. 



Vernal plants dull green, sometimes bluish, in tufts of few to several culms, 30 to 70 

 cm. high, erect or ascending, usually stout, glabrous, including the nodes; sheaths, 

 except the uppermost, short, rather loose, usually crowded and overlapping at base, 

 ciliate on the margin, otherwise glabrous; ligules about 0.3 mm. long; blades thick 

 and firm with inconspicuous veins, ascending or erect, 7 to 13 cm. long, 6 to 12 

 mm. wide, the crowded lower ones usually much larger than the others, these suc- 

 cessively smaller upward, tapering from the cordate base to the acuminate apex, 

 smooth on both surfaces, margins scabrous, stiffly ciliate toward the base; panicles 

 exserted, 6 to 12 cm. long, half to two-thirds as wide, 

 densely flowered, the lower branches usually narrowly 

 ascending; spikelets 1 to 1.2 mm. long, 0.8 to 1 mm. wide, 

 broadly ovate or subspherical, densely puberulent; first 

 glume one-fifth to one-fourth the length of the spikelet; 

 obtuse, second glume and sterile lemma equaling the fruit 

 at maturity; fruit oval, very obscurely umbonate. 

 Autumnal form remaining erect and simple or late in the season producing branches 

 from the third or fourth node, the branches nearly as long as the primary culm, rarely 

 again branching; winter rosettes appearing late, the blades 3 to 10 cm. long. 



This species shows an unusual variation in the size of the blades and also the num- 

 ber of leaves to the culm. There are usually 5 to 7, but sometimes as many as 10 

 leaves, and in a few specimens no blades are over 5 cm. long. The specimens of 

 Gomhs 553 are small autumnal plants more freely branching than usual. 



Fig. 279. — P. erectifolium. 

 From type specimen. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Moist pine barrens, swamps, and borders of ponds. North Carolina to Florida and 

 Louisiana; also in Cuba. 



North Carolina: Wilmington, Chase 3137, Eitchcock 411; without locality, 

 McCarthy in 1885. 



Georgia: Allapaha, Curtiss 6817 

 in part; Huntington, Harper 

 1394; Charlton County, Har- 

 per 1485. 



Florida: Jacksonville, Curtiss 

 4812 (Hitchcock Herb.); Bald- 

 win, Combs 58; Lake City, 

 Combs 114; De Funiak 

 Springs, Combs 467; Washing- 

 ton County, Combs 553, 662; 

 EUzey, Combs 814; Mosquito 

 Inlet, Curtiss 3599; Grasmere, 

 Combs 1117; Eustis, Nash 1012; Manatee River, Rugel 229; Orange Glade, 

 Eaton 578; Myers, Chase 4154, Hitchcock 874, Lee Co. PI. 469. 



Mississippi: Beauvois, Tracy 4596. 



Louisiana: St. Tammany Parish, Cocks 292 (Hitchcock Herb.). 



Cuba: Vuelta Abajo, Wright 3462. 

 41616°— vol 15—10 17 



Fig. 280. — Distribution of P. erectifolium. 



