MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE WEST INDIES 17 
5 to 7 cm long, about 6 mm wide, with a petiole about 2 mm long; 
spikelets narrow, closely appressed to the axis, few in short racemes 
terminating the branches; lemmas about 7 mm long. The narrow 
but obtuse tip of the blades is minutely pubescent. 
Mountain thickets, Hispaniola. - 
Haiti: Torbeek, Ekman H 5295, H 7460. Badeau, Ekman H 7779. 
La Selle Mountains, Pilkington in 1920, “grows in tangled masses 
over the jungle (8,000 ft.) and is so tough and strong as entirely to 
prevent progress.” Furey, Buch 929. Sierra de Ocoa, Ekman H 
11750. 
Dominican Repusuic: Bejucal, Hkman H 11750. 
FIGURE 1.—Arthrostylidium multispicatum, X 14 (Chase 6201, 6470). 
4, Arthrostylidium multispicatum Pilger, in Urban, Symb. Antill, 
2: 341. 1901. Puerto Rico, Sintenrs 209. 
Arundinaria multispicata Hack., Oesterr. Bot. Ztschr. 53: 69. 1903. 
Climbing high, the slender growing ends of the culms and branches 
beset with very short retrorse prickles, these ends, often 4 m long, 
swinging in the breeze like whiplashes until a support is found, the 
radiating short, sharp scale-covered branch buds then developing, 
these long grappling branches freely produced, forming a dense 
tangled mass; prickles deciduous, the old culms smooth; sterile branch- 
lets whorled, 15 to 30 cm long, the spreading blades 6 to 8 cm long, 
10 to 12 mm wide (on vigorous shoots sometimes larger), the floriferous 
branches rather shorter, bearing 1 to 3 leaves and slender terminal and 
axillary racemes, the spikelets appressed to the straight axis; spikelets 
2 to 3 cm long; fertile florets usually 3 to 5. Blades on sterile shoots 
are wider, rather broadly lanceolate, as much as 11 cm long and 3 
cm wide, unevenly cuneate at base (fig. 1). 
Mountain woods and thickets, Cuba to Puerto Rico; Trinidad. 
