MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE WEST INDIES WA 
53. SAUGETIA Hitchc. and Chase, Contrib. U.S. Natl. Herb. 18: 
Bilton LUGE A 
Spikelets, 2-flowered, the first perfect, the second neuter and much 
reduced; glumes thin, unequal, 1-nerved, acuminate, shorter than 
the floret: first floret stipitate, the lemma firm, minutely 2 2-toothed at 
the apex, 3-nerved, the midnerve produced into a delicate awn; 
palea slightly shorter than the lemma, acute, sulcate between the 
nerves; second floret reduced to a minute lemma on an elongate 
slender rachilla joint. Cespitose perennials with slender wiry branch- 
ing culms, narrow blades, and 1 to 3 slender spikes, the spikelets 
subsessile, contiguous but scarcely imbricate along one side of a 
slender continuous rachis, closely appressed to it. 
Plants 20 to 40 em tall, the culms and blades slender and delicate; spikes soli- 
oi Er Or at ahh Srey AM NR ear Mclean S. FASCICULATA. 
tary 
Plants 50 to 80 cm tall, the culms and blades much coarser; spikes usually 2, 
Somme bimeS gl Vor nde ete estes erp ay a a Ta 2. S. PLEIOSTACHYA. 
1. Saugetia fasciculata Hitchc. and Chase, Contrib. U. S. Natl. 
Herb. 18: 378. 1917. Cuba, Léon 6901. 
Plants in dense hard tufts, glabrous throughout; culms 40 to 50 
cm tall, erect or the summit leaning, the internodes elongate, branch- 
ing at most of the nodes, the branches mostly fascicled, commonly 
one of them elongate, the others reduced to leafy shoots of over- 
lapping sheaths and short spreading blades, these branchlets forming 
conspicuous tufts along the main culms and branches; sheaths 5 to 8 
mm long, with broad papery margins, a tuft of delicate white hairs 
1 mm long at the summit, these wanting on old sheaths, the sheaths 
of the branchlets reduced; ligule obsolete; blades filiform, crescent- 
shaped in cross section, scarcely 0.5 mm wide when flattened out, 
flexuous, the primary blades as much as 10 cm long, those of the 
branchlets 1 to 3 cm long; spikes long-exserted, erect, 3 to 5 cm long, 
the rachis subfiliform, slightly concavo-convex, the spikelets fitting 
into the concavities; spikelets distant by about their own length to 
half their length, 3.6 to 3.8 mm long excluding the awn; glumes 
lanceolate-subulate, the first 0.7 to 0.8 mm long, the second 2 to 2.5 
mm long; floret stipitate, the stipe 0.5 mm long, bearded with erect 
hairs 0.4 to 0.5 mm long; lemma 3.2 mm long (excluding the awn), 
about 0.4 mm wide, glabrous, the lateral nerves near the margin, 
the midnerve becoming strong toward the summit and produced into 
a delicate flexuous erect, minutely scabrous awn 12 to 16 mm long; 
palea minutely scabrous on the nerves; second floret reduced to a 
narrow pointed i-nerved lemma about 1.2 mm long, the slender 
glabrous erect rachilla joint 1.8 mm long (fig. 77). 
Limestone ground in thickets and on limestone cliffs, Cuba and 
Hispaniola. 
Cusa: Mendoza, Ekman 18172. San Julidn, south of Guane, 
Léon 6901, 7312, TATA; Wright 3894. Jauco Abajo, southern Baracoa 
region, Léon 12312. 
Dominican Repusuic: Rio Mao, Valeur 177. Moncidn, Ekman 
H 12606, H 13059, H 13081. 
In one specimen (Léon 12312) some of the inflorescences consist of 
two spikes. In all the others the spikes are solitary. 
