354 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



Panicum repens, Linne. 4 



Near the Mediterranean Sea, also in South- Asia and North-Aus- 

 tralia. Regarded by the Cingalese as a good fodder-grass. It is 

 perennial and well suited for naturalisation on moist soil, river-banks 

 and swamps. P. coloratum, L., seems a variety of purplish colour, 

 and is therefore used ornamentally in vases. 



Panicum roseum, Steudel.* (Tricholcena rosea, Nees.) 



South-Africa. This perennial pretty grass promises to become 

 with others of the section Tricholaena valuable for meadows in mild 

 climes. It gets about 2 feet high. Mr. Danger counted nearly 300 

 stems on one plant in Gippsland ; grows there most vigorously, 

 densely covering meadow-ground, much relished by stock. Also 

 much lauded by Mr. Holtze as a pasture-grass in extra-tropic South- 

 Australia. Well calculated to increase the national provender on 

 runs. In Fiji it reaches a height of 4 feet ; it rises most readily from 

 seed, even if the latter is merely blown about [R. L. Holmes]. It 

 will not bear frost ; the stems take root where they touch the 

 ground ; an acre has been calculated to yield 30 tons green feed in 

 the rich valleys of the Macleay-River. Quite suitable for bouquets 

 [A. R, Crawford]. 



Panicum sanguinale, Linn. 



From Middle and South-Europe, Northern Africa and Southern 

 Asia, spread through all countries with a warm climate, and appa- 

 rently also indigenous in North- and East-Australia. The " Finger- 

 grass," called " Crab-grass " in the United States, where according to 

 Mr. Hagenauer it is recognised as one of the most useful of all 

 pasture-grasses ; in Fiji it is also considered the best grass for pas- 

 tures according to Mr. Holmes. It accommodates itself to swampy 

 and shady places, readily gets disseminated on barren ground, and it 

 is likely to add to the value of desert-pastures at least in oases, but 

 in cold countries it is annual. P. ciliare (Linne") and P. glabrum 

 (Gaudin) are allied. Colonel Howard of Georgia says of the Crab- 

 grass and Bermuda-grass, that they will live in spite of neglect, but 

 when petted will make such grateful returns as to astonish their 

 benefactor. The Finger-grass spreads readily from seeds as well as 

 joints. Valuable also for binding coast-sand and fixing soil along 

 water-courses ; but in warm regions it may become intrusive on agri- 

 cultural land. Shy to frost. It will spread out to 4 feet width in a 

 year, emitting hundreds of fascicles of florets [W. Read]. Growth 

 after summer-rains very quick. Thrives splendidly on the sandhills 

 of the hot Australian interior also ; grows there most vigorously. 

 Mr. John Clayton also bestows great praise on it for its splendid 

 growth on the lower Swan-river. In the southern states of North- 

 America much valued for midsummer-pasture, though for nay the 

 yield also there proved but light [Sereno Watson]. 





