v 
HITCHCOCK AND CHASE—NORTH AMERICAN PANICUM. 23 
First glume acute, second glume about two-thirds as 
long as fruit. 
Spikelets 1.5 mm. long; blades involute........ 1. P. distantiflorum. 
Spikelets 2 mm. long; blades scarcely involute.. 2. P. utowanaeum. 
Blades usually less than 10 cm. long, not narrowed toward the 
base; spikelets 2.5 to 3 mm. long. 
Blades of mid-culm long-acuminate, usually 2 to 3 mm. 
THALGIGS 0 a UNE en ees ne ne en NO 4. P.ramisetum. 
Blades of mid-culm abruptly acute, usually 4 to 6 mm. 
WAKO Kes cM ae Ae eh a ee Re A a A aE Peers deh aaa 6. P. firmulum. 
* © 1. Panicum distantiflorum Rich. 
Panicum distantiflorum Rich. in Sagra, Hist. Cuba 11: 304. 1850. ‘‘Crescit in 
graminosis montosis insulae Cubae.’? The type in the Paris Herbarium is labeled 
“‘in montosis ins. Cubae,’’ and was received from Sagra. In the same herbarium is a 
specimen of Panicum megiston Schult., from Cayenne, which bears a slip with the 
name ‘‘Panicum distantiflorum,’’ accompanied by a diagnosis and drawings of spike- 
lets. The diagnosis and drawings apply to the Cuban specimen and not to the very 
' different Cayenne specimen. It would appear that the drawings had been attached 
to the wrong sheet. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Plants cespitose, glabrous; culms 60 to 80 cm. high, slender, wiry, compressed, pro- 
ducing slender, sometimes fascicled branches from all the nodes; sheaths longer than 
the internodes, but narrow and sheathing the joints only at 
the base, flattened, a minute tuft of hairs on the auricles; 
ligule a ring of very short hairs; blades erect, firm, narrower 
than the summit of the sheath, linear to almost capillary, as 
much as 30 cm. long, 1 to 2 mm. wide, mostly strongly invo- 
lute, at least the lower commonly more or less curled, usually 
with a few hairs at the base; panicles numerous, 2 to 7 cm. 
long, very narrow, the branches appressed, scarcely overlap- Te Darien aia 
ping, the lower 8 to 15 mm. long, the branchlets bearing 1 to Hegre peinoeoined: 
3 subsessile spikelets, the setiform prolongation of the axis 
rarely equaling the spikelet, usually not more than 1 mm. long; spikelets 1.5 mm. 
long, 0.7 mm. wide, ellipsoid, acute, glabrous; first glume about half as long as the 
spikelet, acute, strongly 5-nerved; second glume obtuse, two-thirds to three-fourths 
as long as the fruit and the strongly 7-nerved, acute, sterile lemma; fruit 1.3 mm. long, 
0.6 mm. wide, elliptic, pointed, finely rugose. 
DISTRIBUTION. 
Open rocky soil, Bahamas and Cuba; apparently rare. 
Banamas: Inagua, Hitchcock in 1890, Nash & Taylor 893 (both in Field Mus. 
Herb.). BPRS 
Cusa: Playa de Cojimar, near Habana, Hitchcock 144; Colombia near Habana, 
Leén 305b, 567; Santiago de Cuba, Leon 912, 917; Playa de Marianao, Ledn 
in 1909. 
ROM Oo Oak 
Vel “0 De ee 
