PHALARIDE^ 195 



canary-grass, an annual with ovate heads, is an occasional 

 weed introduced from Europe. This is grown in Europe 

 for the seed which furnishes the canary seed of commerce. 

 Canary seed usually contains also the seed of Panicum 

 miliaceum. The seed of Phalaris canariensis (Fig. 34) is pale yel- 

 low, 5 mm. long, elliptical-lanceolate, laterally somewhat flattened 

 but equally convex on both sides, hard and shining and more or less 

 pubescent. The fruit of Panicum miliaceum is pale, brownish or 

 reddish, about as long as canary-grass seed but much more plump, 

 dorsally flattened on one side, the palea being inclosed or overlapped 

 by the lemma, the whole smooth, hard, shining, and faintly nerved. 

 The seed, when removed from the inclosing lemma and palea is 

 nearly white, somewhat globular with a notch in one side, pearly 

 in appearance. The fruit of common or foxtail millet {Chxtochloa 

 italica) differs from that of Panicum miliaceum in being some- 

 what smaller and faintly cross-wrinkled, and in the appearance of 

 the palea, which presents 2 ridges near the margin representing 

 the 2 keels. (See Figs. 21 and 25.) 



