PANICUM MANATENSE 11. sp.
Whole plant, with the few exceptions described below, smooth and glabrous. Culms 2-4 dm. long, strongly striate-grooved, de cumbent, much branched, the lower and longer internodes arcuate ;. nodes often yellowish on one side ; sheaths loose, ciliate along the margins, at least when young, the lower ones much shorter than the internodes, those at and toward the extremities of the branches. crowded and overlapping; ligule truncate, very short ; leaves erect or nearly so ; lanceolate 3.5-9 cm. long, 7-15 mm. wide, acumi nate at the apex, rounded at the sparsely ciliate base, 9-I3-nerved ; panicle ovate in outline, 4-6 cm. long, its branches single and divided almost to the base, 1.5-3 cm. long, ascending; on ascending pedicels usually longer than themselves, elliptic about 3.5 mm. long, 1.3 mm. wide, very acute ; first scale mem
branous, slightly exceeding one-third the length of the spikelet, ovate, acute, 1-3-nerved ; second and third scales 7-9-nerved,. membranous, acute, strongly pubescent with spreading hairs, the latter with a hyaline palet about one-third its length ; fourth scale chartaceous, elliptic 2.5 mm. long, strongly apiculate, enclosing a palet of similar texture as long as itself.
Collected by the writer on August 21, 1895, near a sulphur well in a wet hammock northeast of Palmetto, Manatee County, Florida, no. 2428a. Approaching P. commutation Schult. in habit and general appearance, but the large and very acute spike lets readily distinguish it from that species.