PAN 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



PAN 



235 



bristle-bearing. Culms filiform, branched, leafy ; leaves two 

 inches long, subcordate at the base, with the edges of the 

 sheaths ciliate. Native of China. 



15. Panicum Colonum ; Purple Panic Grass. Spikes 

 alternate, directed one way, awnless, ovate, rugged ; rachis 

 roundish. Root annual; culms a span high, round, ascending; 

 leaves even, often ferruginous-spotted, purple at the throat, 

 without a ligule. It flowers in July and August. Native of 

 the East Indies. 



16. Panicum Fluitans ; Floating Panic Grass. Spikes 

 alternate, sessile, directed one way, the third calicine valve 

 minute. Culm compressed, leafy; leaves linear. It is a 

 very beautiful, smooth, even grass ; flowers directed one 

 way, alternate, sessile, imbricate. Native of the East Indies, 

 Arabia, and Madagascar. 



17. Panicum Brizoides ; Briza-like Panic Grass. Spikes 

 alternate, sessile, directed one way ; two of the calicine 

 valversinuch shorter than the corolla, and retuse, the third 

 the same length with the corolla. Culms decumbent at the 

 base, compressed, with purple joints ; leaves at the joints of 

 the culm, first single, but afterwards several within the same 

 sheath, linear, even ; corolla cartilaginous, with the valves 

 flat and very smooth, one margin embracing ; stigmas pale 

 rose colour. Native of the East Indies. 



18. Panicum Flavidum ; Yellowish Panic Grass. Culm 

 leafy ; spikelets remote, sessile, pressed close, directed one 

 way, few-flowered. This is an upright grass, from two inches 

 to half a foot in height ; root fibrous, the fibres undivided ; 

 flowers globular, alternate, directed one way, yellow, with 

 green nerves. All the glumes of the calix violet-coloured at 

 the tip. Native of Ceylon. 



19. Panicum Dimidiatum ; Half-spiked Panic Grass. 

 Spike halved, and directed one way ; spikelets five-flowered, 

 alternately pressed to the hollowed rachis. Culm ten feet 

 high, very finely striated, ascending. Native of the East 

 Indies. 



20. Panicum Burmanni; Wave-leaved Pamc Grass Spikes 

 mostly four, remote, directed one way, simple, the two outer 

 glumes of the flowers awned. Culm decumbent, branched, 

 villose, and rooting at the base ; leaves lanceolate, with hairs 

 thinly scattered over them ; the sheaths villose at the edge ; 

 florets alternate, commonly abortive ; corolla snow white, 

 very smooth. Native of the East Indies, and of Italy. 



21. Panicum Hirtellum ; Rough-haired Panic Grass, or 

 Scotch Grass. Spike compound ; spikelets pressed close, 

 alternate ; calices doubled, all the valves awned, outer long- 

 est. Culm creeping, ascending-, three inches to a foot. 

 Native of the West Indies, and the south of Europe. This 

 grass is cultivated, and thrives very luxuriantly, iu all the 

 low and marshy lands of Jamaica, where it is almost univer- 

 sally used as fodder for their stabled cattle : it is planted 

 near the towns with great care, and found to be one of the 

 most beneficial productions of the island, where its general 

 growth is from two to four feet. It is propagated by the 

 joints or root, and set in small drilled holes, about two feet 

 and a half asunder : the young shoots begin to appear in a 

 few days, and as they grow they spread and creep along the 

 ground, casting a few roots, and throwing out fresh roots 

 from every joint, as they run ; these soon supply the land, 

 and fill the field with standing plants, which alone are gene- 

 rally cut. It is fit to cut in six months from the first plant- 

 ing, and every month or' six weeks after, if the season fall 

 in kindly, and due care be taken to keep the ground free 

 from weeds. An acre of good ground well stocked with this 

 grass, near Kingston or Spanish Town, is computed to bring 

 in above 120/. a year; and when once planted, holds many 



VOL. ii. 85. 



years ; but when the main stalk or root grows hard or woody, 

 the younger shoots do not push so luxuriantly, and they are 

 then obliged to plant anew; this however is easy, being done 

 gradually, for the pieces are generally supplied as. they clean 

 them, by throwing up every stubbed or falling root they find, 

 planting a few joints in the place. 



22. Panicum Pilosum ; Hairy Panic Grass. Spikes pani- 

 cled, alternate, directed one way; spikelets in pairs, one 

 smaller, acuminate, even ; rachis compressed, hairy. Culm 

 divaricate, jointed ; leaves lanceolate, acute, even, rugged at 

 the edge ; sheaths approximating, compressed, villose at the 

 base ; peduncles from the sheathing internodes, compressed, 

 short; antherre purplish; filamenta none. Native of Jamaica 

 and other West India Islands, in woody mountainous pas- 

 tures. 



23. Panicum Molle ; Soft Panic Grass. Spikes panicled, 

 alternate, directed one way, spreading; spikelets approxi- 

 mating, pedicelled, directed one way, awnless. Culm from 

 two to three feet high, decumbent at the base, ascending, 

 subdivided at bottom, jointed, round, thick, pubescent. This 

 is immediately known from the other species by its softness ; 

 and as the culm is thick and succulent, it is very grateful to 

 cattle. Swartz says it is a native of Surinam, and is com- 

 monly called Dutch Grass in Jamaica, where it grows in 

 moistish fertile pastures. 



24. Panicum Fasciculatum ; Fascicled Panic Grass. Spikes 

 fascicled, alternate, erect, subfastigiate ; spikelets directed 

 one way, roundish ; height two or three feet. Culm jointed, 

 erect, round, leafy, smooth. Native of low grassy places in 

 Jamaica. 



25. Panicum Carthaginense ; Carthagena Panic Grass. 

 Spikes panicled ; leaves shorter ; spikelets directed one way ; 

 leaves roundish. Roots long, filiform, stiff, perennial ; culm 

 a foot high, very much branched, jointed, prostrate, com- 

 pressed a little, grooved, stiff, smooth. Native of grassy 

 places near Carthagena in South America. 



26. Panicum Conglomeratum ; Conglomerate Panic Grass. 

 Spike directed one way, subovate ; florets blunt. Culms fili- 

 form, prostrate, very much branched, rooting ; leaves laiv- 

 ceolate, even, with the sheaths shorter than half the inter- 

 nodes. Native of the East Indies, near towns, and even in 

 the streets. 



27. Panicum Interruptum ; Broken-spiked Panic Grass. 

 Spike simple, interrupted; spikelets two-flowered. 'pedicel- 

 led, naked. This grass is three feet high, and smooth; 

 knots of the culm black. Native of stagnant waters in the 

 East Indies. 



28. Panicum Sanguinale; Slender-spiked Cock's-foot Pamc 

 Grass. Spikes digitate, knobbed at the inner base ; florets 

 in pairs, awnless ; sheaths of the leaves dotted. Root annual ; 

 culms leafy, even, with three joints, at the tyo lower pro- 

 cumbent, the upper oblique, very long ; flowering branches 

 from the joints; leaves broadish, short, sublanceolate. even. 

 All the stems which lie near the ground take root, and by this 

 means, though an annual and short-lived plant, it increases 

 and spreads very wide. The trivial name Sanguinale, is not 

 derived from its colour, but from an idle trick which the 

 boys in Germany have of pricking one another's nostrils 

 with the spikelets of this grass until they draw blood. This 

 species is very universal, being found not only in Europe, 

 but in Asia and America; and the Society Isles in the 

 Southern Ocean. It is not common in England, but grows 

 at Elden in Suffolk; Witchingham in Norfolk; near Martha's 

 Chapel; by Guildford in Surry ; Wandsworth field; and in 

 the gardeners' grounds near Battersea : flowering from July 

 to September. 



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