PANICUNI MALACOPHYLLUM n. sp.
Whole plant, except the leaves, papillose-hirsute with rather soft long spreading hairs. Culms 4 din, tall or less, erect, at length branching toward the summit; nodes densely barbed with reflexed hairs ; ligule a ring of hairs about I mm. long ; sheaths shorter than the internodes, loosely embracing the culms ; leaves erect or ascending, narrowly oblong-lanceolate, narrowed toward the rounded base, acuminate at the apex, softly pubescent on both surfaces, rough on the margins, 7-nerved, the primary leaves 5-8 cm. long, 4—I I mm. wide, the leaves of the branches 4 cm. long or less, 3-5 mm. wide ; panicle slightly exserted, ovate, 3-5 cm. long, the branches spreading, somewhat flexuous, the lower 1.5-2 cm. long, bearing 4-8 spikelets on pedicels shorter than them selves ; spikelets obovate, 3-3.5 mm. long, acute, the outer three scales membranous, densely pubescent with long spreading hairs, the first scale orbicular-ovate, acute, about two-fifths as long as the spikelet, I-nerved, the second and third scales equal in length, broadly oval, 9-nerved, acute, the latter enclosing a hyaline palet about one-half its length, the fourth scale chartaceous, broadly oval, yellowish white, enclosing a palet of equal length and similar texture.
Type collected by Mr. B. F. Bush on May 19, 1895, at Sapulpa, Indian Territory, no. 1228. The grass secured by Dr. Edward Palmer in 1868, on the False Washita, between Fort Cobb and Fort Arbuckle, Indian Territory, no. 383, belongs here. Dr. Gattinger also obtained it in the cedar barrens of Tennessee, in May, 1880.
This appears to be sufficiently distinct from P. Scribnerianum to warrant giving it specific rank. Its more slender habit, the long hirsute pubescence of the culm and the panicle, including its branches and pedicels, the densely barbed nodes, the softly pubes cent leaves, and the somewhat smaller acute spikelets which are densely pubescent with hirsute hairs, appear to make the above disposition of the plant necessary. In P. Scribneriaumn the pu bescence is much more rigid, the culm and panicle glabrous, or rarely with a few scattered hairs, and the leaves and spikelets glabrous, or the latter occasionally somewhat pubescent with shorter hairs.
Dr. Palmer's no. 382, collected probably in the same locality as his no. 383, referred to above, is P. Scribner/annul, and strik ingly shows the differences, already noted above, between this and P. malacorhyllum, when growing in the same region.