PANICUM DRITTONI n. sp.
Whole plant, with the exception of the spikelets, smooth and glabrous. Culms coarsely striate, densely caespitose, slender, erect, rigid, 1-2 dm. tall, simple or sparingly branched ; sheaths closely embracing the culm, striate, less than one-half the length of the internodes ; ligule a ring of short hairs, about .5 mm. long ; leaves longer than the sheaths, the basal ones broadly lanceolate, more or less spreading, 1.5 cm. long or less, 3-4 mm. wide, those on the culm three in number, the middle one the longest, 1-3 cm. long, 1.5-3 mm. wide, strictly erect, acuminate at the apex, generally somewhat narrowed toward the rounded base, primary nerves 5-7 ; panicle broadly ovate, 2-3 cm. long, the branches spreading or ascending, the lower ones 1-2 cm. long, the ultimate divisions sparingly scabrous, twice as long as the spikelets or longer ; spikelets obovoid, or nearly oval, obtuse, about 1.3 mm.
long, the first scale about one-third as long as the spikelet, mem_ branous, usually purplish, glabrous or sparingly pubescent, acutish, the second and third scales equal in length, membranous, broadly oval, 7-nerved, densely pubescent with slightly ascending hairs, the third scale enclosing a hyaline palet about one-half its length, the fourth scale chartaceous, yellowish, oval, obtusely apiculate, enclosing a palet of equal length and similar texture.
In moist sand in the " pine barrens " at Forked River, N. J.
Collected by Dr. Britton during an excursion of the Torrey Botan ical Club to that region May 29—June 2, 1896.