140 GraminecB. \Panicum. 



11. F. "muticum, Forsk. Fl. sEg. Arab. 26 (1775). 

 P. barbinode, Trin. ; Thw. Enum. 361. C. P. 899. 



Fl. B. Ind. vii. 34. Trin. Sp. Gram. Ic. t. 318 (A barbinode). 



Perennial ; stem stout, 6-8 ft, ascending from a stout 

 creeping base, leafy, internodes 3-6 in. and upwards, nodes 

 woolly; 1. 6-10 by -|-§ in., linear-lanceolate from a rounded 

 pubescent base, finely acuminate, flat, thin, glabrous, faintly 

 scaberulous, margins scabrid, sheath up to 8 in., loose, 

 glabrous, margins eciliate, ligule a tomentose ridge; panicle 

 3-8 in., erect, pyramidal, compound, rhachis stout, smooth, 

 angular, lower branches 5 in. long with many short spikes, 

 upper 2-3 in. spiciform, rhachis of spike ^V m - broad or more, 

 stout, dorsally compressed, glabrous or villous towards the 

 base, margins ciliolate; spikelets very many, -^-\ in., crowded, 

 secund, solitary binate or ternate, rarely fascicled, shortly 

 pedicelled, oval or ovoid, acute, glabrous, pedicel pubescent 

 and with a few long white spreading hairs; glume I one- 

 quarter to one-third as long as III, ovate, hyaline, i-veined; 

 II and III subequal, oblong, acute, thin, 5-veined, Illpaleate, 

 male, *anth. long, purple, IV shorter than III, oblong, obtuse, 

 apiculate, coriaceous, dorsally flattened, obscurely rugulose, 

 margins narrowly incurved, base rounded with a very short 

 broad thickened stipes. 



Abundant, cultivated and half wild, in the hotter swampy regions of 

 the Island. 



Java, India, Africa, America. 



The water-grass and Mauritius grass of Ceylon, native of S. America. 

 Owing to the tendency to branch of the spikes, the inflorescence of this 

 tends towards the broadly panicled section, but the long hairs on the 

 spikes and secund spikelets are very characteristic of sect. Brachiaria. 



A well-known fodder-grass in Ceylon, but there is no record of its 

 introduction into the Island. According to Roxburgh seeds were 

 received at the Calcutta Botanical Garden from Sumatra in 1804, 

 through Dr. Charles Campbell. As it is a native of Tropical America, 

 the Dutch, who then held ports in Sumatra, may have imported it from 

 Surinam. According to Ferguson, it and P. maximum are the two most 

 valuable fodder-grasses in Ceylon. Unlike the latter, P. muticum grows 

 best in well-drained low or swampy ground. It is singular that neither 

 Thwaites, Trimen, nor Ferguson give a Sinhalese or Tamil name for 

 it, and that it is not alluded to in Watt's Dictionary of the Economic 

 Products of India. 



12. P. ramosum, Linn. Mant. i. 29 (177 1). 



P. Helopus, Thw. Enum. 436 (non Trin.). C. P. 3847. 



Fl. B. Ind. vii. 36. Trin. Sp. Gram. Ic. t. 176, A, B (C. Petiverii). 



Annual; stem erect or ascending from a shortly creeping 

 base, 1-3 ft. high, slender or rather stout, much branched 

 from the base upwards, puberulous, leafy, lower internodes 

 short, upper long, nodes pubescent ; 1. 2-5 by ^-\ in., narrowly 



