J > ennisetnm.~\ GTamtfieCE. 1 7 1 



ridge with soft hairs; spiciform racemes 6-12 in. long by \-\\ 

 in diam., cylindric, obtuse, dense-fid., rhachis stout, hairy or 

 woolly; involucels stipitate, clustered, stipes silky or hispid, 

 bristles \ in. long, slender, scabrid or more or less ciliate or 

 plumose; spikelets \-\ in.; glum° I o, II minute, orbicular, 

 ciliolate, III as long as IV, quadrate, 5-7-veined, paleate, 

 empty, palea oblong, puberulous, veins ciliolate, IV oblong, 

 dorsally rounded, smooth, polished; lodicules o; anth. -cells 

 with bearded tips; styles connate at the base; grain obovoid, 

 compressed. 



Cultivated in the hot region. Spikes reddish or yellowish-brown. 

 A widely distributed millet in the old world from Italy to China, 

 especially grown in Africa. It is the Bajri of the Hindoos, the Bull-rush 

 Millet of the knglish. Variable in the size of th« spike, length and 

 colour of ihe invol. bristles, and in the proportions of the glumes. 

 Ferguson says that it was introduced from India into Ceylon, where it is 

 grown by the Tamils, and springs up in rubbish heaps about Colombo. 

 The grain, like Canary seed, was used for feeding the Carrier pigeons 

 which were employed before the introduction of the telegraph in carrying" 

 news from Galle to Colombo. Cattle are fond of the straw. 



2. P. orientale, Rich, in Pers. Syn. i. 72. 



Kunth, Enum. PI. i. 162, ii. 117. Panicum orientale, Willd. 



Fl. B. Ind. vii. 86, not given for Ceylon. 



Perennial, 2-3 ft. high; stem suberect from a stout root- 

 stock, leaf}', clothed below with withered l.-sheaths; 1. 6-12 in. 

 by \-\ in., narrowly linear, finely acuminate, flat, smooth, 

 margins scaberulous, ciliate close to the obtuse or truncate 

 base with very long, fiexuous hairs, sheath glabrous, margins 

 ciliate, ligule a ridge of very short hairs; spike 6 in. long, 

 inclined, rhachis slender, subterete, involucels loosely packed, 

 shortly stipitate, stipes pubescent, bristles very unequal, 

 longest about f in., capillary, fiexuous, scaberulous, plumose 

 with long hairs below the middle, base naked; spikelets 

 2-6 in., each invol. \ in. long, pedicels pubescent; glume I 

 \-\ the length of III, ovate-oblong, obtuse, veinless, II, III, 

 and IV narrowed into slender scaberulous awns, ~-\ their 

 own length, II one-third shorter than IV, ovate, faintly 

 3-veined, III as long as IV, ovate-oblong, 5-7-veined, 

 paleate, triandrous, IV narrower than III, membranous, 

 5-veined, awn recurved, paleas of III and IV as long as the 

 glumes, of III obtuse, of IV acuminate, and sometimes bi- 

 aristulate; anth. long, yellow; style and stigmas long. 



Ella Pass, Uva (Trimen, 9th Sept. 1890, introduced?). Spikelets pale, 

 invol. bristles tinged with purple. 



N.W. India, Sindh, the Concan, Behar, W. Asia, and N. Africa. 



So many Behar and Concan plants are found in the drier parts of 

 Ceylon, that P. orientate may well be indigenous on the Uva Pass. 



