MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE WEST INDIES at 
with narrow blades and slender solitary spikes, the spikelets somewhat 
distant. 
1. Tripogon spicatus (Nees) Ekman, Arkiv. Bot. 11*: 36. 1912. 
Bromus sprcatus Nees, Agrost. Bras. 471. 1829. Brazil. 
Tricuspis simplex Griseb., Mem. Amer. Acad. (n.s.) 8: 5382. 1862. 
Cuba, Wright 1551. 
Leptochlea spicata Scribn., Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. Proc. 1891: 304. 
1892. 
Culms slender, mostly less than 10 cm tall; blades subfiliform, 
ageregated at the base of the plant; spike about half the entire height 
of the plant; spikelets appressed, about 5 mm long (fig. 70). 
Sterile hills, Texas to Argentina; central Cuba, Haiti. 
CusBa: Santayana, Ekman 15356. Motembo, Léon 9416. 
Haiti: St. Michel, Hkman H 8371. 
47. LUEPTURIDIUM Hitche. and Ekman, gen. nov.”® 
Spikelets 2-flowered in two rows on one sde of a continuous tri- 
angular rachis, the pedicels very short; glumes about equal, awnless, 
the midnerve broad, greenish, firm, the margins thin, apparently no 
lateral nerves; lower floret slightly exceeding the first glume, the 
second floret more or less reduced, the internoce of the rachilla slender, 
somewhat flexuous, the callus minutely pilose; lemma of first floret 
thin, minutely and rather sparsely villous, 3-nerved, the midnerve 
evident, the lateral nerves near the margins, obscure, the midnerve 
extending into a inmute mucro between two very short teeth; palea 
narrow, a little shorter than the lemma, deeply sulcate on the back, 
thin like the lemma; second lemma similar to the first, smaller or 
sometimes much reduced, the rachilla enlarged and pilose below the 
floret; paleap resent in the larger second florets, but empty; stamens 
3, brown. 
Perennial with short firm distichous blades and termina! spikes. 
The genus is not closely allied to any other genus. The structure 
ot the spikelet would place it near Gymnopogon which differs in having 
several spikes in an inflorescence and in having usually remote awned 
spikelets. 
Type species, Lepturidium insulare Hitche. and Ekman. 
1. Lepturidium insulare Hitchc. and Ekman, sp. nov.” 
Perennial; culms cespitose rather wiry, spreading, decumbent at 
base, or prostrate, 10 to 30 cm long; sheaths overlapping, several 
to many on the lower half of the flowering culms, pilose or villous 
around the summit and the base of the blade; blades stiffly ascend- 
ing, rather conspicuously distichous, fiat, becoming involute, glab- 
rous, 1 to 2 mm wide, mostly 1 to 2 cm long, the tip hard, obtuse, 
somewhat boat-shaped; spike solitary, erect, stiff, mostly 5 to 8 cm 
long, the base enclosed in the uppermost sheath or slightly exserted ; 
elumes about 3 mm long, oblong-linear, the midnerve hard; lemma 
of first floret about 2.5 mm long; second floret nearly as long as the 
first or reduced to a minute rudiment, the rachilla joint slender, 
1 to 1.5 mm long; stamens 3, about 0.5 mm long (fig. 71). 
29 Spiculae 2-florae multae in spica solitaria terminale; glumae aequales 1-nerviae; floscula inferior glumam 
primam subequans tenuis 3-nervia mucronata; floscula superior parva vel minuta, rachilla gracili. 
30 Planta perennis; culmi subrigidi 10-39 cm alti, nodis multis; laminae rigidae distichae 1-2 cm longae, 
1-2 mm latae; glumae 3 mm longae; lemma inferius sparse villosum. 
60256—36——8 
