800 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
description and are from the locality as published. These specimens all are the 
autumnal form, with the reduced panicles partially inclosed in the sheaths. 
An earlier Panicum cryptanthum “Nuttall. Gen.”’ is a nomen nudum. It is men- 
tioned without description under Panicum cynodon Reichardt 
by Hillebrand 4 as a name in Kew Herbarium. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Vernal form cespitose; culms erect, 80 to 100 cm. high, 
glabrous except the usually bearded nodes; sheaths glabrous 
or the lowermost sparsely hirsute, the upper somewhat in- 
flated, all more or less ciliate on the margins and pilose at 
the summit; ligules membranaceous, erose, scarcely 6.5 mm. 
long; blades stiff, ascending or spreading, acuminate, invo- 
lute-pointed, glabrous, sparingly ciliate at base, 10 to 15 cm. 
long, 7 to 9 mm. wide; panicles short-exserted, 6 to 10 cm. long, nearly as wide, the 
axis and ascending branches viscid-spotted; spikelets 2.2 to 2.4 mm. long, 1 mm. 
wide, lanceolate-elliptic, pointed; first glume one-fourth to one-third as long as the 
spikelet; second glume and sterile lemma equal, longer than the fruit and pointed 
beyond it, glabrous or sparsely pilose; fruit 1.5 mm. long, 0.9 mm. wide, elliptic. 
Autumnal form erect, glabrate on the nodes, sparingly branching from the middle 
and upper nodes, the branches stiffly ascending at an angle of 30 to 45 degrees; blades 
flat, stiffly ascending, 2 to 5 cm. long, 
3 to 5 mm. wide, involute-pointed; 
panicles reduced to a narrow cluster 
partially hidden in the sheaths. 
The habit of this species suggests a 
small P. scabriusculum. 
Fig. 340.—P. cryptanthum. 
From type specimen. 
DISTRIBUTION. 
Low swampy ground, North Carolina, 
tonorthern Florida, also in Texas; rare. 
“‘Sokaexmn New Jersey:,Atlantic City, Long 
in 1909 (Phila. Acad. Herb.). 
Norra Carona: Wilsons Mills, Ashe in 1897; Wilmington, Hitchcock 371, 1469. 
Sout Carona: Orangeburg, Hitchcock 1377. 
GroraiA: Belair, Eggert in 1899 (Mo. Bot. Gard. Herb.). 
Froripa: De Funiak Springs, Combs 444. 
Tipsenae Kountze, “Nealley 37 in 1892. 
Fig. 341.—Distribution of P. cryptanthum. 
Commutata.—Culms rather stout; glabrous or puberulent; ligules obsolete or nearly 
so; blades usually 1 cm. or more wide (often narrower in P. ashei and P. 
equilaterale), cordate and more or less ciliate at base; spikelets 2.4 to 3.2 mm. 
long, elliptic, not very turgid, pubescent, 7 to 9-nerved. Autumnal form 
usually not very freely branching. 
Plants glaucous, glabrous; basal blades conspicuously ciliate; 
vernal’ culms) usually solitany. = 9=sss525-e eer Renee 185. P. mutabile. 
Plants not glaucous. 
Blades nearly linear, that is with parallel margins; first 
glume about half as long as the spikelet. 
Primary panicles long-exserted; sheaths mottled 
with white... shots ose erat 188. P. albomaculatum. > 
a¥l. Hawaiian Isl. 498. 1888. 
