546 



CVir. GRAMINE^. 



{_Pd7iicum, 



Florets longer 



in limestone^ regions. If.. 4—6 One of our earliest grasses, and 



a very beautiful one. The roots much tufted. Cubns 6 — 12 or 18 

 inches high. Leaves linear, obtuse, with a minute rough point. 

 Spike of a shining bluish-grey, with large yellow anthers tipped with 

 purple. Spikelets generally in pairs, oblong-ovate, the lower ones 

 with an ovate ciliated and toothed bractea at the base. Glumes 

 ovate-lanceolate, 3-toothed, middle tooth lengthened into an awn 

 and often bifid, pubescent at the keel and margin, 

 than the glumes. Oxxtev glumellas 1-ribbed, pubescent or ciliat'ed 

 jagged with about 5 teeth, the middle tooth lengthened into a short 

 awn ; inner one bifid at the point. 



24. Panicum Linn. Panick-grass. (Tab. VII. f. 21.) 



Spikelets flat in front, rounded on the back, 2-flowered, with- 

 out bristles at the base, usually on one side of the partial rachis^ 

 and arranged in a compound spike, raceme, or panicle. Glumes 

 2 ; lower one (in front) small, upper as long as the spikelet. 

 Lower (or anterior) floret as long as the upper, barren and 

 triandrous or neuter : glumellas 1—2 ; outer with the texture of 

 the upper glume and as long. Upper jioret perfect ; glumellas 

 2, cartilaginous, enveloping and somewhat adhering to the 

 caryopsis^ neither awned nor setigerous, very rarely mucro-, 

 nulate. — Named from panis^ bread; the seeds of some species 

 being used for bread. — The British species belongs to that 

 section called by Beauvois Echinochloa^ and distinguished by 

 the spikelets in a compound raceme^ the upper glume and lower 

 glumella of the sterile floret with a long awn-like bristle. 



1. P. (Ech.) "^ Crus-gdllili. (loose P.); " culms erect tufted 

 at the base, leaves linear acuminate more or less scabrous on 

 the upper ^ side, sheaths glabrous, ligule none, spike compound 

 erect, partial ones alternate unilateral somewhat close-pressed 

 to the compressed triquetrous common rachis, spikelets ovate 

 turgid hispid (greenish), lower glume broadly cordate-ovate 

 with an embracing base mucronate thrice shorter than the 

 spikelet, upper ovate acuminate 5-nerved, neuter floret with 

 2 glumellas the lower with a longish bristle, caryopsis even 

 gibbous ovate with a hispid point." £. B. t. 876, Echinochloa 

 Beauv. : Parn. Gr. t. 67. 



Fields near London. 



0- 



Waste ground near Thetford, Norfolk. ^ 

 '^•"rThe whole group to which the above belongs is in almost in- 

 extricable confusion; and we scarcely know what the naturalized 

 British species really is, or whether there may not be several. Por 



the above character of the true P. Cms galli, we are indebted to Nees 

 V. Esenbeck, 



**: 



i 



