Pcmicum. triandria digynm. 283 



sorts of involucrets equally disposed round the flower, and iu 

 the leaves being lanceolate and smooth. 



3. P. spicatum. R. 



Erect. Spikes cylindric. Involucres hairy, surrounding- 

 from one to three awnless polygamous flowers. Calyces 

 two-valved, both shorter than the corol, the inner longer and 



retuse. 



Holcus spicatus. Linn. sp. pi. ed. Willi, iv. 928. 



Gramen paniceum. Pluck. &c. aim. t. 32. f. 4. good. 



Hind. Bwjera, or B?/jra. 



Pedda-Gantee is the Telinga name of the plant, and Gant«- 

 loo, the grain. 



I have only found this in a cultivated state. It is sown 

 about the beginning of the rains, viz. the end of June, and the 

 beginning of July, and is ripe in September. 



Culms several, if the soil is good, from the same grain of 

 seed, erect, with roots from the lowermost joint or two, round, 

 smooth, from three to six feet high, and nearly as thick as 

 the little finger. Leaves alternate, sheathing, broad and 

 long ; mouths of the sheaths bearded. Spikes or rather ra- 

 cemes, terminal, cylindric, erect, as thick as a man's thumb, 

 or more, and from six to nine inches long. Pedicels general- 

 ly two-flowered, though sometimes only one and sometimes as 

 many as four. Flowers surrounded with many, woolly, his- 

 pid purple bristles or involucres, about the length of the 

 flower. Calyx two-flowered, one hermaphrodite the other 

 male, two-valved ; exterior valvelet minute, interior nearly 

 as long as the corol, retuse, both awnless. Corol of the her- 

 maphrodite flower two-valved, of the male one-valved. Style 

 single. Stigma two-cleft, feathery. Seed obovate, pearl-co- 

 loured, smooth. 



Obs. It agrees perfectly well with our Indian species of 



Pcmicum, on that account I have transferred it to that genus. 



This species is much cultivated over the higher lands on 



the coast of Coromandel. The soil it likes is one that is loose 



