Fankum. triandria digynia. 285 



TANICUM. Schreb. Gen. X. 107. 



. Calyx, Glume one or two-flowered, three-valved : exterior valve- 

 lets minute ; seed adhering to the corol. 



Sect. 1st. Spikes simple. 



1. P. indicum. Mant. 184. Retz. OLs. iii. p. Q. 



Culms from four to eight inches, ascendnig from a repent base. 

 Spikes sub-cyhndric, naked. Ca/j/x smooth, no involucres. 



P. conglomeiatum. Linn. Sp. PI. ed. Uitld. i. 341. does not agree 

 vith our plant in having cylindrical spikes \^ilh flowers equallv dis- 

 posed on all sides. This is a very small species, a native of Coro- 

 mandel. 



2. P. harhatum. Tt. 



Culms from three to five feet liigh ; very ramous at top. Leaves lan- 

 ceolate. Spikes simple, cylindric. Lnvolucrets simple, and bearded, 

 surrounding on every side a single flower ; seed smooth. 



This species sprung up in beds, in the Botanic Garden vviicre 

 earth had been thrown that came from Sumatra, or Amboyna. 

 Com])are with P. polydachyon. Linn. Sp. PL ed. IVilld. i. Soo. 



Root annual in Bengal — Culms erect, about five feet high, sim- 

 ple, till near the top, there very ramous.— Leates lanceolate, often 

 a foot and a half long, liispid on the margins, otherwise smooth ; 

 the sheaths about half the length of the joints, with a few single 

 hairs at the mouth. — Spikes terminal, and solitary (though from the 

 numerous ramification of the top 'of the culms the whole mav be 

 called a large leafy pemicle) sub-cyliudric, about three or four inch- 

 es long. — Lnvolucrets of two sorts, the longest about twice the 

 length of the flo\vers with their lower half bearded, (hence the speci- 

 fic name, \\hich for the same reason is also applicable to my Fani- 

 cum liolcoides,) the innermost one is in this species about double 

 the length of the other five, six, or seven ; all are of a reddish brown 

 colour from the bearded part to the point. The other sort of in- 



