MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE WEST INDIES 123 
A fragmentary specimen of this peculiar grass was collected by 
Wright “im small skirts of woods bordering the Savana San Julién” 
in 1865 (no. 8894) and was listed in Sauv alle’s Flora Cubana?! without 
description as cMulenbergia spicata Munn” and by Hitchcock as an 
unidentified specimen. ‘The few weatherworn spikelets on the 
Wright specimen were too much broken to permit of diagnosis. 
Brother Leén at our request kindly visited the locality and sent us a 
specimen of this apparently very rare species. His letter in regard 
to this collection is of interest: 
I visited the Savana San Julidn in company with Father Modesto Roca of 
Guanabacoa. ‘The first two days I did not see any kind of Bouteloua [from the 
broken Wright specimen we had guessed it to be a species of that genus], not 
knowing on what border of the savanna were the skirts of woods, and the savanna 
has a circuit of 40 to 50 kilometers. Atlast * * * we went toa small wood 
(Cayo Gabino) on the northeastern border of the hacienda [of Sefior D. J. M. 
Lamas] and there I saw a tufted grass which I supposed might be the long lost 
species of Wright, though at first sight it cailed to my mind the idea of a small 
Arthrosiyidium, having some resemblance to my no. 4853 [Arthrostylidium 
capillifolium]. I noted with pleasure that it agreed exactly with your description. 
Unluckily there remained very few flowers. I entered the wood at different 
places all around but could not find more of it. 
It is noteworthy that in his field notes Wright called his number 3894 
“Arthrostylidium.”’ 
2. Saugetia pleiostachya Hitche. and Kkman, sp. nov.* 
Culms glabrous, many-noded, straggling, 50 to 80 cm tall, the 
branches appressed, often fascicled, the lower internodes elongate; 
sheaths glabrous, firm, shorter than the internodes, densely villous 
at the truncate summit; ligule a very short densely ciliate membrane; 
blades glabrous, slender, wiry, flat and about 1.5 mm wide or mostly 
filiform, involute, the margins scabrous with fine sharp points; inflor- 
escence of 1 to 3 falcate spikes, 8 to 12 cm long, the second and third 
spike attached 10 to 15 mm below the terminal one and closely ap- 
pressed to it, the rachis slender, triangular; spikelets appressed, 1m- 
bricate, about 1 mm apart on the rachis; first glume a slender minute 
bristle; second glume very narrow or setiform, 2 to 4mm long; lemma 
slightly raised on a minutely pilose stipe, narrow, somewhat terete, 
acute, about 4 mm long, awned from just below the apex, the awn 
very slender, 1 to 2 cm long, the tip very fine, flexuous; palea narrow, 
about as long as the lemma, ending in 2 very fine teeth; rudiment 
minute, the rachilla joint about 2 mm long, lying in the sulcus of the 
incurved margins of the lemma, awnless or with a minute fine awn. 
Type in the United States National Herbarium, no. 1296127, col- 
lected on jurassic limestone, top of Cerro de Mendoza, Mendoza, 
Province of Pinar del Rio, Cuba, June 26, 1920, by E. L. Ekman (no. 
11483). 
Another collection from the same locality was made in 1923 by Dr. 
Ekman (no. 16746). 
In its technical character this species agrees closely with S. fascicu- 
lata. It differs in its larger size, coarser foliage, the usually 2 spikes 
31 P. 191. 
32 Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 246. 1909. 
33 Perennis; culm: glabri multinodii tenues 50-80 cm alti ramosi, ramis appressis; laminae glabrae tenues 
planae vel plerumque filiformes, marginibus scabris; spicae i-3 tenues falcatae 8-20 cm longae appressae; 
gluma prima minuta setiformis; gluma secunda setiformis 2-4 mm longa; lemma angustum, acutum circa 
4mm longum aristatum, arista tenuissima 1-2 em longa; palea bisetosa; rudimentum minutum. 
