34 Bulletin VII. 1. 



8. Paspalum Floridanum Michx. {P. altissimum Le Conte, P. ma- 



crospenjiuni Flugge.) 



Plate V. Figure 20. 



A stout, erect grass, three to four feet high, with long leaves and 

 large spikelets. Nodes smooth. Sheaths somewhat compressed, 

 hairy at the throat, smooth or the lower more or less densely 

 pilose-hairy; ligule short; leaf-blade narrow, linear-lanceolate, ten 

 to fifteen inches long, somewhat scabrous toward the very acute 

 apex, very smooth, or the lower leaves more or less hairy, upper- 

 most leaf-blade very short or wanting. Racemes three to four or 

 seven, erect or ascending, three to five inches long; bearded in the 

 axils, rachis narrow (about one line), nearly flat on the back, some- 

 what flexuose along the minutely scabrous margins. Spikelets 

 smooth or somewhat glaucous, about two lines long and three- 

 fourths as broad, rounded-ovate, obtuse, crowded in two rows; the 

 smooth five-nerved outer glumes covering the brown obtuse 

 flowering glume, which is punctate striate in fine longitudinal 

 lines, with a distinct depression at base; palea punctate-striate 

 like the glume. 



Low, moist fields. West Tennessee, September, 1892 fS. M. Bain.) 

 Apparently rare in the State. More abundant near the sea-shore 

 from New Jersey to Florida; its range extends westward to Texas. 

 The habit of this species is indicative of possible value in agricul- 

 ture. No attempt has been made to cultivate it. 



9. Paspalum laeve Michx. 



Plate VI. Figure 21. 



Culms ascending, often geniculate at the base, one to three feet 

 long, compressed below, smooth. Low^er sheaths, especially of the 

 sterile shoots, strongly flattened, smooth or pilose, usually hairy at 

 the throat; leaf-blade four to five inches to a foot long or more, 

 two to five lines broad, mostly tapering toward the base, very 

 acute at the apex, smooth or more or less papillate-pilose, espe- 

 cially below, scabrous on the margins; ligule membranaceous, less 

 than a line long. Racemes two to five, one terminal, the others 

 lateral and subsessile, more or less spreading, two to five inches 

 long, generally about one inch distant on the main rachis, pilose- 

 bearded in the axils; rachis about one-half a line wide, slightly 

 flexuose and somewhat triangular. Spikelets crowded in two rows, 

 on very short pedicels, plano-convex, one and one-half lines long 

 and nearly as broad, rounded, obtuse at apex, smooth. 



Var. pilosum. Sheaths more or less densely pilose, with spread- 

 ing hairs, leaves narrow, elongated, pilose; racemes less spreading. 



Moist grounds, fields, borders of swamps, etc., common. The 

 variety at TuUahoma, Madisonville, and White Cliff Springs, 

 July to October. 



10. Paspalum ciliatifolium Michx. 



Plate VI. Figure 22. 



An erect or ascending perennial, usually about two feet high,, 

 with long, fiat leaves and slender, often solitary, terminal and long- 



