PANICUM GLABRIFOLIUM n. sp.
Whole plant, except just below the lower nodes, smooth and glabrous and somewhat shining, especially the panicle and spike lets. Culms caespitose, 1.5-4 dm. tall, erect, rigid, slender, leafy to the top, the longer culms pubescent for a greater or less dis tance below the lower nodes, at length somewhat branched ; nodes purplish, the lower ones generally upwardly barbed ; sheaths strongly striate, the lowermost ones pubescent, particularly at the base, 3 cm. long or less, closely embracing the culm, a tuft of hairs on each margin at the apex ; ligule a fringe of hairs .5 mm. long ; leaves narrowly linear, 7-9-nerved, erect, rigid, thickish, long acuminate, narrowed toward the base, those on the sterile shoots 15 cm. long or less, 3-4 mm. wide, those on the fruiting culms 3-9 cm. long, 1-3 mm. wide ; panicle ovate, 4-6 cm. long,
3-4 cm. wide, its branches spreading or somewhat ascending, sin gle, the longer branches about 2 cm. long, bearing 3 or 4 distant ultimate divergent divisions which are 2-6 times as long as the spikelets; spikelets slightly exceeding .5 mm. in length, tinged with purple, obovate, the first scale less than one-half the length of the spikelet, membranous, orbicular-ovate, obtuse, 1-nerved, the second and third scales broadly oval, membranous, 5-7-nerved, the latter enclosing a hyaline palet one-half its length, the fourth scale oval, chartaceous, white, enclosing a palet of equal ength and similar texture.
Collected by the writer in the " flatwoods " at Tampa, Florida, on August 20, 1895, no. 2415a. It grows in dense tufts, the long narrow erect leaves and the wiry culms giving it a striking ap pearance.