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7. PENNISETUM. 
Spikelets one-flowered, solitary or two or three together; sessile, 
or nearly so; each one enclosed in an inyolucre of several usually 
numerous simple or plumose bristles (probably awn-like branches of 
the panicle), the involucres crowded in a spike or spike-like simple 
panicle, falling off from the main rhachis with the spikelet and short 
peduncle. 
Glumes four, the outer one shorter or sometimes minute. 
Second and third both empty. 
Fruiting glume usually smaller. 
Palea perfect. 
Styles distinct or united almost to the plumose stigmas. 
Nut enclosed in the more or less hardened glume and palea; free 
from it. 
1, Pennisetum compressum, It. Br. 
Botanical name.—Pennisetum—Latin, penna a feather, and seta a 
bristle, each spikelet ‘being enclosed in an involucre of feathery bristles; 
compressum, pressed close or flattish, the stem being flattish. 
Synonym.—P. japonicum, Trin. “‘ Closely allied to, if not identical, 
with this species.” (B. Fl). 
Vernacular name.—“ Swamp Foxtail Grass.” 
Where figured.—Agricultural Gazette. 
Botanical description (B. Fl., vu, 495).— 
Stems 2 to 3 feet high, erect, usually very scabrous and more or less hirsute under 
the panicle, glabrous and smooth lower down. 
Leaves long and narrow, glabrous, the ligula prominent. 
Involucres nearly sessile ina simple cylindrical dense spike of 3 to 6 inches, con- 
sisting of numerous very unequal bristles, the inner more rigid ones varying 
from 4 to 1 inch. 
Outer ones much shorter and finer, mostly minutely scabrous-ciliate, but none of 
them plumose. 
Rete solitary, within the involucre; narrow, terete, rather acute, about 3 lines 
ong. 
Outer glume under 3 line long, orbicular. 
Second glume, from one-third to one-half the length of the spikelet. 
Third many-nerved, empty. 
Fruiting glume scarcely more rigid than the third. 
Styles united up to the feathery branches. 
Value as a fodder.—It is a coarse-growing, fibrous grass, little eaten 
by stock except when young and comparatively tender ; when it is old 
it is as full of fibre as almost any sedge. It grows in large tufts, and 
when in flower is of an ornamental character. 
Habitat and range.—Confined to New South Wales and Queensland, 
occurring from the southern districts of our Colony from the coast to 
the tableland. Often found on the margins of swamps, and frequently 
as tussocks in paddocks in cold districts. 
