HITCHCOCK AND CHASE—-NORTH AMERICAN PANICUM. a5 
DESCRIPTION. 
Plants cespitose, glabrous; culms ascending or spreading, 40 cm. to 1 meter high, 
slender, compressed, wiry, sparingly branching; sheaths about as long as the inter- 
nodes, compressed, pubescent at the scarcely au- 
riculate summit, sometimes ciliate on the margin; 
ligule a ring of very short hairs; blades erect, 
rather firm, linear, 15 to 40 cm. long, 2 to 5 mm. 
wide, acuminate, narrowed to the base, more or 
less involute when dry, scabrous on the margin 
and upper surface, the latter usually sparsely pilose 
toward the base; panicles elongated, sometimes 
as much as 30 cm. long, of remote, appressed, 
raceme-like branches bearing few to several sub- 
sessile, somewhat crowded spikelets, the setiform 
prolongation of the axis 3 to 6 mm. long; spikelets 
2 to 2.2 mm. long, 1 to 1.2 mm. wide, obovate, abruptly pointed, turgid, pale green 
or yellowish; first glume about one-third the length of the spikelet, obtuse or 
truncate, 3-nerved; second glume 
slightly shorter than the fruit and 
sterile lemma, strongly 5 to 7-nerved, 
obscurely reticulated; fruit 1.8 mm. 
long, 1 to 1.1 mm. wide, elliptic, 
abruptly acute, minutely rugose, the 
margins of the lemma inrolled only at 
base. 
As observed on Key Largo the 
blades in this species are flat on plants 
growing in shadefl situations and in- STR 
volute on plants in the sun. The Fig. 4.—Distribution of P. chapmani. 
flat blades become more or less involute in drying. 
Fic. 3.—P, chapmani. From type 
specimen. 
DISTRIBUTION. 
Coral sand and shell mounds, southern Florida and the Bahamas. 
Fuoripa: Marco, Hitchcock Lee Co. Pl. 487; Cape Sable, Simpson 157; Key 
Largo, Chase 3926, Curtiss 5457; Little Pine Key, Curtiss 3607; Key West, 
Garber in 1877; ‘‘Shores of Manettee River,’’@ Rugel 394; without locality, 
Blodgett, Chapman. 
Banamas: New Providence, Britton & Brace 401; Rose Island, Britton & Mills- 
paugh 2137; Great Exuma, Britton & Millspaugh 3076 (all in Field Mus. 
Herb.). 
4, Panicum ramisetum Scribn. 
Panicum subspicatum Vasey, U.S. Dept. Agr. Div. Bot. Bull. 8: 25. 1889, not Desv. 
1831. ‘“‘Texas (Buckley, Nealley).’’ Both specimens cited by Vasey are in the 
National Herbarium. The second of these has been chosen as the type for the following 
reasons: The first specimen cited, S. B. Buckley in 1881, does not bear the specific 
name in Vasey’s hand, and furthermore is a mixture of P. ramisetum and P. reverchoni; 
the second specimen, collected in Texas by G. C. Nealley in 1887, bears the specific 
name, ‘‘subspicatum V.’’ in Vasey’s hand. Another Nealley specimen bears the 
name in Vasey’s hand, but was collected in 1892, after the publication of the specie 
Panicum ramisetum Scribn. U.S. Dept. Agr. Div. Agrost. Circ. 2'7:9. 1900. Base 
on Panicum subspicatum Maeey) not Desy. 
aThis locality, if meant for Manatee River, is probably an error. " 
