TRIANDRIA— DIGYNIA. Panicum. 97 



is indubitably a native, though, like all annual plants, variable 

 in its places of growth. 



Annual. July, August. 



Root fibrous. Stems numerous, bent arid decumbent at the base, 

 then ascending, about a foot long, jointed, leafy, striated, smooth. 

 Leaves broad, pointed, striated, wavy at the edges, besprinkled, 

 like their long rather swelling sheaths, with little warts, many 

 of which bear bristly hairs. Spikeshoxa 3 to 8, alternate, spread- 

 ing, crowded at the top of the stem, many-flowered. Common 

 stalk of each spike flat, wavy, winged, rough-edged, with a flat 

 mid-rib at one side, the other beset with 2 rows of unequally 

 cloven, two-flowered, short, erect partial-stalks. Fl. dark pur- 

 plish, erect, elliptic-oblong. Largest valve of the calyx with 

 usually five ribs, its edges rough or downy. Stigmas, and often 

 Anthers, violet coloured. The specific name is said to have ori- 

 ginated in the use made of this grass in Germany, which is to 

 procure bleeding of the nose, by thrusting its spikes up the 

 nostrils. 



Professor Schrader separates from this species, by the name of 

 Syntherisma glabrum, what Leers has described, and represented 

 in his t. 2.f. (5. I describe the native English plant, upon which 

 Haller evidently founded his Digitaria. Jussieu copied him, even 

 in his error respecting the character ; nor did he advert to the 

 bivalve corolla, pointed out by Haller himself, in Panicum Dac- 

 tylon, which forms an exception to their definition of Digitaria. 

 1 have therefore concurred with Mr. Brown and other able bota- 

 nists, in applying the name of Cynodon to the preceding genus, 

 retaining Digitaria for this. The advanced state of our know- 

 ledge requires the separation of both from Panicum, with whose 

 character they have never been found well to accord. 



38. PANICUM. Panick-grass. 



Linn. Gen. 32. Schreb. 46. Juss. 29. Sm. in Rees's Cycl. v. 26. 



Fl. Br. 64. Lam. t. 43. Br. Pr. 189. Schrad. Germ. v. 1. 239. 



Gar In. t. 1. 

 Pennisetum. Br. Pr. 195. 



Cal. imperfectly two-flowered, of 2 very unequal, ribbed 

 valves ; the outermost various, generally triangular, very 

 short, sometimes wanting; inner much larger, concave, 

 elliptical, many-ribbed, for the most part awnless. One 

 Jloret perfect;' the other either entirely neuter, or fur- 

 nished (in some foreign species) with stamens only. Cor. 

 in the former of 2 unequal, elliptical, membranous, acute 

 valves, both becoming horny, and forming a coat to the 

 seed: in the latter of 1 or 2 valves, the outermost concave, 

 of the texture of the calyx, ribbed, sometimes more or less 



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