MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



601 



Figure 1267. — Distribution of 



Paspalum boscianum.. 



Paspalum scrobiculatum L. Stouter and with larger spikelets, un 



equally biconvex, the sterile lemma loose and wrinkled, o — Bal 



last, Camden, N.J.; Abilene, Tex.; Asia. 



14. Bifida. — A single species approaching 

 Panicum; spikelets turgid; a minute first 

 glume usually developed. 

 42. Paspalum bifidum (Bertol.) Nash. (Fig. 



1268.) Culms erect from short rhizomes, 50 to 



120 cm tall; blades flat, 10 to 50 cm long, 3 



to 14 mm wide, villous to nearly glabrous; 



racemes usually 3 or 4, at first erect, 4 to 16 cm long; rachis slender, 



subflexuous; spikelets distant to 

 irregularly approximate, elliptic- 

 obovate, 3.3 to 4 mm long; sec- 

 ond glume and sterile lemma con- 

 spicuously nerved. % — ^Sandy 

 pine and oak woods, occasionally 

 in hammocks, nowhere common, 

 on the Coastal Plain from South 

 Carolina to Texas and Oklahoma 

 (fig. 1269). 



129. PANICUM L. Panicum 



Spikelets more or less compressed 

 dorsiventrally, in open or compact 

 panicles, rarely racemes; glumes 2, 

 herbaceous, nerved, usually very 

 unequal, the first often minute, the 

 second typically equaling the sterile 

 lemma, the latter of the same tex- 

 ture and simulating a third glume, 

 bearing in its axil a membranaceous 

 or hyaline palea and sometimes a 

 staminate flower, the palea rarely 

 wanting; fertile lemma charta- 

 ceous-ind urate, typically obtuse, 

 the nerves obsolete, the margins in- 

 rolled over an enclosed palea of the 

 same texture. Annuals or peren- 

 nials of various habit. Type spe- 

 cies, Panicum miliaceum. Pani- 

 . cum, an old Latin name for the 



Figure 1268.— Paspalum bifidum. Panicle, XI; ' . n , /ry , . ., 7 . » 



two views of spikelet, and floret, X 10. (Curtiss COmmOIl millet {oetarid itallCa). 



5590, Fia.) Panicum miliaceum, proso millet, 



is cultivated to a limited extent in this country for forage. In Europe 

 it is sometimes cultivated for the seed which is 

 used for food. Two species are commonly culti- 

 vated in the lowland tropics for forage, P. 

 maximum, Guinea grass, an African species, said 

 to have been introduced into Jamaica in 1774, 

 and P. purpurascens, Para grass, introduced 

 into Brazil from Africa. Certain native species 

 are constituents of wild hay or of the range. 

 P. virgatum, switch grass, of the eastern half of the United States, 



Figure 1269.— Distribution of 

 Paspalum bifidum. 



