272 



CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



Spikelets not over 2.1 mm. long. 



Blades firm, glabrous above; culms stiffly 



ascending 164. P. lancearium. 



Blades lax, softly puberulent on both surfaces; 



culms decumbent 165. P. patulum. 



^ 



v/ 163. Panicum paucicUiatum Ashe. 



Panicum paucicUiatum Ashe, Elisha Mitchell Soc. 16: 87. 1900. "Collected by 

 me May 20, 1899, growing in dry sand near Wilmington, N. C. " The type, in Ashe's 

 herbarium, consists of six single culms, beginning to branch, 25 to 30 cm. high, with 

 somewhat geniculate nodes, and short-exserted, hardly mature panicles. 



Fig. 303. 



—P. paucicUiatum. 

 type specimen. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Vernal culms cespitose, erect or geniculate at base, slender, stiff and wiry, 15 to 30 

 cm. high, the internodes commonly reddish purple, crisp-puberulent to nearly gla- 

 brous; sheaths much shorter than the internodes, striate, glabrous or crisp-puberulent, 

 usually ciliate; blades firm, 2 to 5 cm. long, 3 to 6 mm. wide, ascending or spreading, 

 glabrous to puberulent, ciliate near the base; panicles 2 to 4 cm., rarely 6 or 7 cm., long, 

 two-thirds as wide, the flexuous branches spreading or the lower reflexed, the pedicels 

 and ultimate branchlets often directed toward the under side; spikelets 1.5 to 1.6 mm. 



long, 1 mm. wide; first glume one- third to half as long 

 as the spikelet, obtuse or truncate; second glume and 

 sterile lemma puberulent, the glume shorter than the 

 fruit and sterile lemma; fruit 1.4 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, 

 elliptic-obovoid, obscurely pointed. 



Autumnal culms ascending from a decumbent base, 

 branching from all but the uppermost node before the 

 maturity of the primary panicles, the primary inter- 

 nodes often elongating, the terminal joint with its 

 panicle together with the intemode. below it often falling early, thus giving the ap- 

 pearance of short culms branching at all the nodes characteristic of this species; early 

 branches about equaling tliese shortened primary culms, repeatedly branching, the 

 ultimate branchlets in fascicles toward the ends, the reduced blades spreading, invo- 

 lute-pointed; winter rosette appearing late, not conspicuous. 



This species often closely resembles P. lancearium, butHhe differences, though small, 

 are fairly constant, though Chase 3126 and Ennis in 1899 have spikelets 1.7 to 1.8 mm. 

 long. Chase 3139, Wilmington, N. C, 

 with ligules 0.3 mm. long and scarcely 

 pyriform spikelets, is doubtfully re- 

 ferred here. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Sandy woods of the Coastal Plain, 

 mostly in moist places, North Carolina 

 to Florida and along the Gulf to Texas; 

 also in Cuba and Porto Kico. 



North Carolina : Roanoke Island , 

 Chase 3246; Wilmington, Ashe 

 in 1899, Chase 3126, 3127, 3128, 



3162, 4567, Hitchcock 414, 416, 1432, 1477, 1479, 1487. 

 Florida: Baldwin, Hitchcock 992; Apalachicola, Chapman; Orange County, Baker 

 41, 70, 71, 72, Combs 1085, Meislahn 169; Eustis, Chase 4045, Hitchcock 793, 



Fig. 304.— Distribution of P. paucicUiatum. 



