PANICUM POLYCAULON n. sp.
•Plant yellowish green, with the habit of P. ciliatum Ell., smooth and glabrous, excepting the margins of the sheaths and leaves, and the axis of the panicle which is sparingly pilose. Culms densely caespitose, the upper portion naked, 2 dm. tall or less, erect, simple, or at length somewhat branched ; sheaths coarsely striate, ciliate on their margins, the lower loose, 2.5 cm. long or less, the uppermost one longer than the remainder ; ligule a ring of very short hairs ; leaves erect or ascending, nar rowly oblong-lanceolate, 2-7 cm. long, 2-8 mm. wide, somewhat narrowed toward the rounded base, acuminate at the apex, ciliate on the margins with somewhat ascending hairs, 7-9-nerved, the mid-nerve prominent ; panicle broadly ovate, 3 cm. long or less, its branches spreading or ascending, their ultimate divisions several times longer than the spikelets, the main axis and usually the lower branches sparingly pilose ; spikelets about 1.5 mm. long,
divergent from the branches of the panicle, obovate, obtuse, the first scale about one-half as long as the spikelet, thin membra nous, orbicular-ovate, obtuse, i—nerved, the second and third scales equal in length, membranous, broadly oval, 7-nerved, the latter enclosing a hyaline palet about one-half its length, the fourth scale chartaceous, oval, white, enclosing a palet of equal length and similar texture.
Type specimen collected by the writer on Aug. 20, 1895, in the "flatwoods " at Tampa, Florida, no. 2420a. A specimen in the Columbia University herbarium collected by Chapman be longs here; no. 3875 of Wright's Cuban Collection of 1865, dis tributed as P. dichaomum L., is also to be referred to this species.
The narrower leaves, more slender culms, and smaller and glabrous spikelets well distinguish this from P. cthatum Ell., to which it is most nearly allied.