MILIUM EFFUSUM. 41 



MILIUM EFFUSUM. 



LINNAEUS. SMITH. PARNELL. HOOKER AND ARNOTT. LINDLEY. 



GREVILLE. KOCH. HUDSON. WITHERING. HULL. RELHAN. SIBTHORP. 



ABBOT. CURTIS. KNAPP. LEERS. SCHRADER. SINCLAIR. 



PLATE XII. 



Gramen mtliaceum, RAY. GERARDE. 



" " vulgare, MORISON. 



The Spreading Millet Grass. 

 Milium Millet. Effusum Spreading. 



MILIUM. LinncBus. Confined to one British species, with spreading 

 panicle, having in some degree dorsally compressed awnless spikelets, 

 with two almost equal-sized glumes, and the same number of glumellas. 

 Millet Grass, says Sir W. Hooker, either receives its name from mille a 

 thousand, on account of its fertility, or from mil a stone, because of the 

 hardness of its seeds. 



AN elegant Grass, growing commonly in damp woods and in moist 

 shady situations. Of no agricultural value, but the seeds are a 

 favourite food of small birds. 



Common in many portions of England, Scotland, and Ireland. 

 Abroad it is found in Norway, Sweden, Lapland, North America, 

 the United States, and in the Mediterranean Islands. 



Root fibrous, perennial, and branching. Stem upright, smooth, 

 slender, shining; and having four or five broad, flat, pale green, 

 shining, smooth, lanceolate-shaped leaves, with sheaths that are smooth 

 and striated, the upper sheath having an oblong membranous ligule. 

 Joints smooth. Inflorescence compound panicled, or spreading, the 

 panicle being glabrous, subverticillate, loose, and of large size, with 

 lengthy slender branches arranged in alternate distant clusters along 



G 



