318 MISC. PUBLICATION 243, U.S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
bearing from near the base stiffly spreading branchlets, the spreading 
pedicels 2 to 3 mm long; spikelets about 1 mm long; glumes hispidulous; 
florets appressed-pubescent. 
Dry cliffs, slopes, and pine barrens, Cuba. 
Cusa: Cajalbana, Léon 4843. San Diego de los Bafios, Léon 
5078. Bahia Honda, Ekman 12678. Zaza de Tunas, Léon 6730. 
Sancti Spiritus Mountains, Léon 6520. a Perla, Shafer 3013, 8561. 
Sierra Maestra, Ekman 1633. Baracoa, Ekman 3981. Guara, 
Hitchcock 23403, 23413. Hastern Cuba, Wright 755. 
3. Isachne pygmaea Griseb., Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 553. 1864. Jamaica, 
Macfayden. 
Plants low, the slender branches spreading, glabrous, the flowering 
shoots usually less than 15 cm tall, rarely as much as 30 cm long; 
sheaths glabrous, ciliate on the margins; ligule a very short hispidulous 
ring; blades narrowly oblong-lanceolate, 0.5 to 2 cm, or rarely 3 cm, 
long, rarely more than 2 mm wide, spreading, glabrous or puberulent, 
the white cartilaginous margin somewhat scabrous; panicles long- 
exserted, narrow, compact and spikelike, usually less than 2 cm long, 
the lower branches short and somewhat distant, appressed or rarely 
ascending; spikelets about 1.3 mm long, nearly sessile; glumes gla- 
brous, about two-thirds as long as the spikelet; florets glabrous. 
Grassy banks. This grass has a very limited distribution, being 
known only from a small area in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica 
between Newcastle and Cinchona, at about 1,500 m altitude. 
JAMAICA: Vinegar Hill, Perkins 1085. Cold Spring Gap, Hitchcock 
9742 (Amer. Gr. Nat. Herb. 419); Harris 11314, 12490. Moodys 
Gap, Britton 3375. Arntully, Orcutt 5756. 
4. Isachne rigidifolia (Poir.) Urban, Symb. Antill. 4: 85. ~1908. 
Agrostis rigidifola Poir., in Lam., Encycl. Sup. 1: 257. 1810. 
Santo Domingo. 
Milium rigidiforum Roem. and Schult., Syst. Veg. 2: 319. 1817. 
Pamcum rigidifolium Kunth, Rév. Gram. 1: 37. 1829. 
Culms spreading and branching, the flowering shoots firm and 
rigid, 15 to 40 cm tall; sheaths glabrous, stiffly ciliate on the margin, 
overlapping on the flowering shoots; ligule a very short, lacerate or 
ciliate membrane; blades oblong, 2 to 4 em long, 2 to 4 mm wide, 
firm, rigidly spreading, pungently pointed, glabrous, the cartilagmous 
margin and thick midrib whitish; panicles long-exserted, open, 
oblong, rather narrow, 2 to 5 cm long, the branches ascending or 
spreading, bearing the branchlets mostly on the lower side, the 
pedicels rigid, 1 to 2 mm long; spikelets about 2 mm long, purplish, 
borne obliquely upon the pedicels; glumes glabrous or sparsely 
appressed-hispidulous near apex; florets smooth. 
The species is easily recognized by its smooth, rigid, spreading, 
pungently pointed, conspicuously distichous blades. 
Mountain bogs and limestone ridges, West Indies. 
CusA: Sierra del Cristal, Ekman 6839. 
Harti: Mission, Leonard 3829, 3890. Furey, Leonard 4324, 4569. 
Pérodin, Ekman H 3473. Pétionville, Ekman H 1437. Petite 
Goave, Ekman H 73811. 
Dominican Repusuic: Rio Yague, Fuertes 1729. Lagunas de 
Cenobi, Valeur 29. Loma Diego de Ocampo, Ekman H 16326. 
San José de Ocoa, Ekman H 11872. 
