52 Bulletin VII. 1. 



are smooth and the panicle is smaller. Open, usually moist woods. 

 June — July. Less common than P. laxiflorum. 



26. Panicum pubescens Lam. 



Plate XV. Figure 58 (as P. dichotominn pubescens). 



A slender, finally much-branched perennial, six to twenty inches 

 high, with flat, erect, and rather thick, narrowly-lanceolate leaves. 

 Culms erect or assurgent, usually geniculate at the lower joints, 

 branching throughout, especially above, villous or nearly smooth; 

 nodes bearded; sheaths shorter than the internodes, densely vil- 

 lous or pilose, with long spreading hairs, very hairy at the throat; 

 ligule a dense fringe of short hairs; leaf-blades on the primary 

 culm two to four inches long, three to six lines wide, (those of the 

 branches smaller) very acute, rounded at the base and somewhat 

 clasping; margins minutely serrulate-scabrous and pilose; surfaces 

 papillate-pilose with long white hairs, or nearly glabrous. Panicle 

 of the primary culm about three inches long, ovate or pyramidal, 

 the spreading branches solitary or in pairs, compound to the base, 

 scabrous or pilose; pedicels equalling or exceeding thespikelets in 

 length. Panicles of the branches nearly simple and few-flowered, 

 usually partially enclosed within the leaf-sheaths. Spikelets a line 

 long, obovate, obtuse; first glume about one-fourth the length of 

 the spikelet, obtuse or acute; second and third glumes pubescent, 

 prominently seven-nerved; the third with a small palea; fourth 

 glume smooth and shining, broadly obtuse. 



I think this is the P. pubescens of Lamarck. Lamarck's descrip- 

 tion was doubtless based upon an old plant which had become 

 much-branched, and which exhibited only the few-flowered, sim- 

 ple, and nearly sessile panicles of the branches. The plant I have 

 described here is P. villosum in the herbarium of Elliott. 



The lower portion of the stem and branches of this grass are 

 often strongly geniculate, with arched internodes. The branches 

 are usually appressed and sometimes densely fasciculate towards 

 the summit. The nearly erect and rather thick leaves of this 

 species are quite characteristic. They are firmer in texture than 

 in almost any other species of the group, and the spikelets are a 

 third larger than in P. lafiuginosum. 



P. pubescens Lam., as understood by Michaux, was an erect, very 

 much-branched, leafy and softly pubescent grass, with ciliate, lan- 

 ceolate leaves, small few-flowered invaginate panicles, and obovate 

 or subglobose, puberulous spikelets. (Michx. Flor. Bor. Amer. I., 

 P- 49-) 



27. Panicum lanupfinosum Ell. 



Culms slender, one to two feet high, finally much-branched; pu- 

 bescent with spreading hairs, bearded at the nodes. Sheaths 

 pubescent, usually shorter than the internodes, bearded at the 

 throat; ligule a fringe of long (two to three lines) white hairs; leaf- 

 blades lanceolate, thin, somewhat spreading, those of the primary 



