38 



scattered and verticillate, the lower 4 to 5 inches long, much subdivided 

 nearly to the base, branchlets slender and numerously flowered; spikelets 

 sometimes in pairs or racemose, 1^ lines long, smooth, obtuse or acutish, 

 not acuminate, lower glume half or rather more than half as long as the 

 spikelet, broad, three-nerved, acutish, second and third glumes equal, 

 five-nerved, the third with a narrow palet, perfect flower as long as the 

 spikelet, oblong, lanceolate, abruptly acute, the point sometimes a little 

 roughened. 



Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. 



Probably P. avenaceum Kth. is not different. 

 \/ [a) Yar. minor (P, maximum, var. bulbosum, Munro), a smaller form, 

 about 2 feet high, with the panicle much reduced. 



In same region. 



59. P. maximum, Jacq. (P. jumentorum Pers.). — Culms erect, 3 to 5 

 feet high, glabrous; nodes softly pubescent; leaves linear, 1 to 1J feet 

 long, 9 to 12 lines wide, rather rigid, maigin scabrous, sheaths smooth ; 

 panicle 1J feet long, much branched, hispid or scabrous, the branches 

 verticillate, long and contracted, racemose, scabrous; spikelets mostly 

 short-pedicelled, 1J lines long, ovate, smooth, acute; lower glumes 

 about one-third as long as the spikelets; second glume shorter than the 

 spikelet; perfect flower acute. 



Introduced and cultivated in the South. 



GO. P. amarutn, Ml. — Culms 2 to 3 feet high, from a stout running 

 root stock, thick, columnar, nearly one-half inch in diameter; leaves 

 nearly flat, almost coriaceous, glaucous, 1 to 1J feet long, 4 to 6 lines 

 wide, tapering to a long, slender point; sheaths glabrous, striate; pan- 

 icle 1 foot or more in length, appressed, or becoming somewhat 

 spreading, the lower branches verticillate, 6 inches long, subdivided 

 nearly to the base, narrowly paniculate ; spikelets rather racemose, 

 ovate, 2J lines long, acute; glumes thick, the lower glume about two- 

 thirds the length of spikelet, acute; second glume the longest, seven- 

 nerved, acuminate; third glume rather shorter and obtusish ; perfect 

 flower linear-oblong, obtuse, one-fourth shorter than the spikelet. 



Grows among the sand-hills on the sea shore. South Carolina to 

 Florida. 



V {a) Yar. minor, V. & S. — Leaves involute ; panicle shorter, narrower, 

 distantly branched, comparatively few-flowered, the branches rather 

 glomerate and unequal ; spikelets rather larger (2h to 3 lines) ; the lower 

 glumes lunger, or nearly as long as the spikelet. 



Fortress Monroe, Ya., and northward, near the coast. 



61. P. virgatum, Linn. — Stout, erect, uubrauched, 3 to 5 feet high, 

 from strong, creeping root-stocks ; leaves flat, very long (1 foot or more), 

 3 to 4 lines wide, smooth ; panicle compound, 6 to 18 inches long ; 

 branches single to verticillate, generally very numerous and becoming 

 diffuse, spreading or drooping ; spikelets on rough pedicels, 1 J to 2 lines 

 long, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, pointed, smooth ; lower glume more than 

 half the length of the spikelet (sometimes two-thirds), five-nerved; sec- 



