. 
Panicum. GRAMINACEAE, 493 
glabrous, rough along the margins, their sheaths plicate sng keeled; the 
ligules ovate-rounded. Spikes 3—6, distant, alternate, I! 1/9 b- 
sessile, with a few long hairs at thie ase, forming a te viable of 
3—5‘ in length. Spikelets suborbicular or broadly ovate-obtuse, 1—1! Pg 
single, rarely in pairs, subsessile in two close rows on the outer side of 
the flattened broadly ribbed axis (which is 1“ broad) and projecting over 
the Outer empty glumes equal, suborbicular, of the same length 
anc aR as the floret, very thin, 3-nerved, the lateral nerves marginal, 
Fertile glume and palea cartilaginous, smooth, pale brownish; the latter 
biauriculate above the base. — P. scrobiculatum, 8, Kunth, Enum. PI. I, 53. 
y co i wampy groun r soil. A coarse grass distasteful to 
horses and cattle, i 
Australia, Malaysia and §. China. P. scrobiculatum, L., which is common Iso in India 
and Africa, differs in having 5—9-nerved sterile glumes, and shallow pits along the mar- 
gins of the fertile on 
+2. P. conjugatum, Berg. — Kunth, Enum. Pl. I, 51.— A large and coarse 
decumbent grass, 2—4 ft. high, the stem branching, geniculate below, 
naked yaeteed compressed, glabrous. Leaves 7— 9‘ & 5=—7", thin charta- 
ceous, very acute, scabrous at the margins, ciliolate at the ans, otherwise 
glabrous, as is the sharply compressed sheath. Ligule ciliate. Spikes 2, 
sessile and conjugate at the top of the stem, each 3—5‘ long, very slender, 
the rhachis about 1/2 broad. Spikelets subsessile, small, #/4‘’ in length, 
broadly ovate or ae oblong apiculate, loosely i mbricate in 2 rows. 
Empty glumes equal, thin, hyaline, with only 2 2 stiff and green marginal 
nerves; the lower convex one (next to the rhachis) ciliate at the margins, 
the upper plane one glabrate. Palea not auriculate. + Steudel, 1. c. p. 21. 
— Griseb. Fl. W. Ind. p. 541. — Trin. Icon. tab. 102 
he well known Hilo grass, which first appeared about 1840 i i i district of Hilo and 
: asturage ; no 8 
at first. — The is a native of tropical America, where it exten nds from 
to aulorayt but % tone now also in tropical Africa, the Galapagos Islands, pene ia. 
2. PANICUM, L. 
Spikelets mid small, with one fertile flower, awnless or rarely awned, 
either along one side of the simple branches of a panicle, or in a loose 
branching or pie and spike-like panicle. Glumes 4, rarely the lowest 
one suppressed, the sterile ones thin membranous, the two outer ones 
awnless, the third sometimes awned, empty or with a thin, often minute 
palea and often a male floret in its axil; the innermost or fertile glume 
of a firmer texture, glabrous and faintly 3-nerved, the palea like its 
glume, but smaller and 2-nerved. Stamens 3. Styles elongate termi 
the pencil-shaped stigmas with simple denticulate hairs. Grain grooveless, 
enclosed in its hardened glume and palea. 
