34 MISC. PUBLICATION 243, U.S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
Blades glabrous. 
Spikelets faleate; panicle oblong, rather dense, 8 to 12 cm long. 
1 E. SALZMANNII. 
Spikelets straight; panicle usually much more than 15 cm, open. 
Bladesunvolitee.. 252 ote ae ee ee 20. E. PROLIFERA, 
Blades flat, 2 to 5 mm wide, becoming involute. 
2 E. DOMINGENSIS. 
1. Eragrostis amabilis (L.) Wight and Arn.; Hook. and Arn., Bot. 
Beechey Voy. 251. 1841. 
Poa amabilis L., Sp. Pl. 68. 1753. India. 
Poa plumosa Retz., Obs. Bot. 4: 20. 1786. East Indies. 
Eragrostis plumosa Link, Hort. Berol. 1: 192. 1827. 
Annual; culms branching, slender, ascending or 
spreading; mostly 10 to 20 cm tall; blades flat or 
involute, 1 to 2 mm wide, sometimes wider; pani- 
cles oblong, somewhat open, mostly 4 to 8 cm long; 
spikelets about 2 mm long, 4- to 8-flowered; lem- 
mas ovate, obtuse, 1 mm long; keels of palea long- 
ciliate, the hairs about 0.3 mm long (fig. 13). 
Open ground and waste places, warmer regions 
of both hemispheres. A native of the Old World. 
Originally described from India. Throughout the 
West Indies. 
2. Eragrostis ciliaris (L.) Link, Hort. Berol. 1: 
LO eS e 
Poa ciharis L., Syst. Nat. ed. 10. 2: 875. 1759. 
Jamaica. 
Poa edegans Poir., in Lam., Encycl. 5: 87. 1804. 
FIGURE 13.—I/ragrostis Puerto Rico, Ledru. 
SE eee Erect or spreading annual; culms slender, 15 to 
lahn 10). 40 cm tall; blades flat, 1 to 3 mm wide; panicles 
: condensed, usually interrupted, sometimes rather 
loose, 5 to 15 em long; spikelets subsessile, crowded, about 2 mm 
long, mostly 6- to 8-flowered, the palea prominently ciliate (fig. 14). 
Open ground and waste places, warmer regions of both hemispheres. 
Apparently introduced in America. A common weed around towns. 
Probably to be found on all the West Indian islands. 
Differs from the preceding in the dense narrow panicles, interrupted 
below, and in the larger crowded subsessile spikelets. The inflor- 
escence of this species varies from the rather dense cylindrical panicle 
with short branches flowered to the base (the typical form) to one 
with stiffly ascending branches naked at the base (such as Curtiss 76, 
Nae Bahamas) and to that with a lax panicle (EZ. ciliaris var. 
axa). 
2a. Eragrostis ciliaris var. laxa Kuntze, Rev. Gen. Pl. 2: 774. 1891. 
St. Thomas, Barbados, and Trinidad. 
Panicle branches sometimes 3 cm long, the spikelets scarcely 
crowded. In the specimens from the Lesser Antilles the cilia on the 
keels are short. 
Habitat the same as for the species. Apparently confined to the 
West Indies. 
Bauamas: Turks Island, Nash and Taylor 3846. Caicos Islands, 
Wilson 7665. 
