424 MISC. PUBLICATION 243, U.S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
infolding the spikelet, fitting into and closing the hollow of the rachis; 
second glume similar to the first but smaller, infolding the remainder 
of the spikelet; sterile lemma, fertile lemma, and palea very thin and 
hyaline, these progressively smaller. Robust perennial grasses, with 
usually broad flat blades and monoecious terminal and axillary 
inflorescences of 1 to several racemes, the pistillate part below, break- 
ing up into bony, seedlike joints, the staminate above on the same 
rachis, deciduous as a whole. 
Spikes 2 to 4 in the terminal inflorescence; blades 1 to 2 em wide. 
1. T. DACTYLOIDES. 
Spikes solitary; blades usually 2.5 to 5 em wide__________-_ 22° “EY LATIFOELGM: 
1. Tripsacum dactyloides 
Ci.) (ELe Syste: 
ed.10, 2: E260) Vane 
GAMA GRASS. 
Coix dactyloides L., Sp. 
Pl. 972. 1753. America, no 
definite locality given. 
In large clumps with 
thick knotty rhizomes; 
culms 2 to 3 m tall; blades 
usually 1 to 2 cm wide; 
spikes 2 to 4 in the ter- 
minal inflorescence, usu- 
ally solitary on the 
branches, 15 to 25 cm long, 
the pistillate part not 
more than one-fourth the 
entire length (fig. 374). 
In the Cuban speci- 
mens the blades are only 
4 to 7 mm wide and the 
terminal spike is solitary, 
suggesting an approach 
: to Triupsacum fioridanum 
| | Porter, of southern Flo- 
| rida, but the blades are flat 
or folded and have promi- 
nent midrib asin 7. dacty- 
loides, those of T. floridanum being 1 to 4 mm wide and subinvolute. 
Moist ground at low altitudes, eastern United States and the West 
Indies to Brazil. 
CuBaA: Road to Nagua Yara (Province of Oriente), Ekman 14152; 
Léon 11332. 
Harti: Port-au-Prince, Cook, Scofield, and Doyle 65; Ekman H 
8170. Pétionville, Leonard 4846, 5064. Mission, Leonard 3945. 
Puilboreau Mountain, Baker 9. St. Michel de l’Atalaye, Leonard 
7157. Ennery, Leonard 8936. Bassin Bleu, Leonard 14997. 
Dominican Repusuic: Barahona, Muertes 1424. 
2. Tripsacum latifolium Hitchc., Bot. Gaz. 41: 294. 1906. Guate- 
mala. 
Differs from the preceding chiefly in the longer broader biades, as 
much as 70 cm long and 5 to 6 cm wide, rarely less than 2 cm, nar- 
rowed to a slender base; sheaths commonly purple; spikes all solitary, 
FIGURE 373.—Coiz lacryma-jobi, X 1 (cult.). 
