Panicum.'] GrannnecB. 137 



bearded ; spikes 8-20, not regularly smaller upwards, sessile, 

 \-\ in., longer or shorter than the internodes, rhachis narrow, 

 scaberulous and with a few long white bristles ; spikelets -^ in., 

 sessile, secund in 3-5 closely packed series, orbicular-ovoid, 

 more or less hispidly pubescent; glume I about one-third as 

 long as III, orbicular, apiculate, 3-veined, II and III sub- 

 equal, orbicular, membranous, interruptedly 5-7-veined, III 

 paleate, empty, IV turgidly oval or ovoid, acute, coriaceous, 

 polished, pale straw-col'd., obscurely striolate, palea coriaceous ; 

 grain ovoid. 



Hotter parts of the Island. Spikelets green or purplish. 



All warm countries. 



The above description is from specimens in the Peradeniya Herbarium, 

 which are very characteristic of the type form of the plants differing from 

 P. Crus-galli in the slender stem and panicle, hardly bearded at the 

 nodes, short spikes, with few bristles on the rhachis and smaller spikelets 

 with rather shorter glume III; but no doubt intermediates between these 

 specimens and those of P. Crus-galli exist in Ceylon as elsewhere. 

 Ferguson cites it as a synonym of P. Crus-galli, with the observation, 

 ' Specimens of the large Crus-galli form spring up from seeds thrown 

 out from the bazaars, and become large tufted plants, quite different in 

 appearance from the small wild P. colonum? He does not mention it 

 as a cultivated plant, which it is in India, where Roxburgh observes that 

 he never saw it wild. 



7. P. ambiguum, Trin. Gen. Panic. 155 (1820;. 



P. sanguinale, Burm. Fl. Ind. t. 10 (non descript.1. P. javanicum, 

 Thw. Enum. 358 (non Poir.). P. infidum, Trim. Cat. Ceyl. PI. 104 (non 

 Trim). C. P. 858. 



Fl. B. Ind. vii. 33. Burm. 1. c. 



Annual; stem 6 in.-2^ ft., very slender, ascending from a 

 long creeping base, simple or branched, leafy, upper inter- 

 nodes long, nodes puberulous ; 1. 3-6 by \-\ in., linear, finely 

 acuminate, fiat, thin, more or less hairy on both surfaces, 

 scaberulous above and on the margins, smooth beneath, base 

 narrow, midrib slender, sheath 1-3 in., narrow, loose, glabrous 

 or hairy, margin filiate above the middle, ligule a villously 

 bearded ridge ; panicle of 3-4 subterminal, erect, subsessile, 

 slender spikes \-2\ in. long, rhachis of panicle slender, trique- 

 trous, pubescent at the nodes, rhachis of spike narrow, concave 

 above, dorsally flattened, margins ciliolate; spikelets suberect, 

 loosely biseriately imbricate, binate, a sessile and shortly 

 pedicelled, ^-\ in. long, oblong-ovate, acuminate, glabrous, 

 pedicels pubescent; glumes I and III subequal, oblong-ovate, 

 acute, I 5-veined, nearly as long as III, II ovate-lanceolate, 

 acuminate, 7-veined, III 5-veined, empty, paleate, IV ob- 

 long, tip obtuse, aristulate, and palea minutely granulate, 

 thinly coriaceous, dorsally flattened, obscurely 5-veined, awn 



