708 



MISC. PUBLICATION 200, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



terminating the main culm and 

 branches, 5 to 20 cm. long, loosely 

 few-flowered, the branches distant, 

 spreading or reflexed; spikelets ovoid, 

 about 4 mm. long, black at maturity. 

 % — Copses and edges of woods, 



southern Florida; tropical America, 

 at low altitudes, especially near the 

 seacoast. 



139. SACCIOLEPIS Nash 



Spikelets oblong-conic; first glume 

 much shorter than the spikelet; 

 second glume broad, inflated-saccate, 

 strongly many-nerved; sterile lemma 

 narrower, flat, fewer nerved, its palea 

 nearly as long, often subtending a 

 staminate flower; fertile lemma stipi- 

 tate, elliptic, chartaceous-indurate, 

 the margins inrolled, the palea not 

 enclosed at the summit. Annuals or 

 perennials, of wet soil, usually branch- 

 ing, the inflorescence a dense, usually 

 elongate, spikelike panicle. Type 

 species, Panicum gibbum Ell. (Saccio- 

 lepis striata.) Name from Greek 

 sakkion, a small bag, and lepis, scale, 

 alluding to the saccate second glume. 



1. Sacciolepis striata (L.) Nash. 

 (Fig. 1081.) Perennial, glabrous, often 

 decumbent and rooting at base; 

 culms as much as 1 to 2 m. tall; 

 sheaths glabrous to more or less 



Figure 1081. — Saceioleyis striata. Plant, X Vi'. two 

 views of spikelet, and floret, X 10. (Chase 4240, 

 Fla.) 



