MILLETS AND OTHER ANNUAL GRASSES 297 



many experiment stations on small plots, but has not been 

 found valuable enough in comparison with other millets. 



362. Ragi, finger millet or coracan (Eleusine coracana) 

 is much cultivated in India and to some extent in Africa 

 as a cereal. It produces large crops of rather poor grain 

 which is therefore very cheap. The cultivated plant is 

 supposed to be a deriva- 

 tive of the wild Eleusine 



indica, native to India. 

 It is markedly charac- 

 terized by having 5 to 

 7 elongate one-sided 

 spikes arranged in an 

 umbel. 



Ragi has much the 

 same adaptations as 

 foxtail millet, but is 

 coarser and more leafy. 

 The varieties are nu- 

 merous. In small tests 

 it has succeeded well 

 throughout the South- 

 ern States, but has never 

 come into use as a forage 

 crop in America. 



363. Texas millet 

 (Panicum texanum). 

 This annual grass is 

 native to Texas and 

 adjacent Mexico. It 

 occurs mainly on the 



bottom lands along streams, and from its occurrence along 

 the Colorado River, Texas, is most commonly known as 



Fio. 30. Texas millet (Panicum 

 texanum). a and b, dorsal and ventral 

 views of a spikelet ; c, lemma. 



