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1. Panicum ccenicolum, P.v.M. 



Botanical name. — Panicum, Latin for a millet-like grain (indirectly 

 frompanis, bread), some of tlie species yielding food-grains; coenicolum, 

 from the Latin ccenum, dirt, filth, manure; colonum, inhabitant, the 

 grass being commonly found near the droppings of cattle. 



Vernacular name. — Mr. Koch informs me that, in common with 

 Pappopliorum commune and some other grasses and small herbage, 

 this grass is called "Kanta" by the aborigines of the Mount Lynd- 

 hurst district, South Australia. 



Where figured. — Agricultural Gazette. 



Botanical description (B. Fl., vii, 467). — Stems from a knotty branch- 

 ing base, ascending to 1 foot or more. 

 Leaves flat, usually softly pubescent or villous. 



Panicle of rather numerous slender simple branches, 3 to 4 inches long, at first erect, 

 at length spreading, the lower ones verticillate, the upper ones alternate and 

 distant, or rarely in pairs. 

 Spikelets in pairs, one sessile, the other pedicellate, oblong, H to 2 lines long. 

 Outer glume not exceeding \ line in our specimens, the second rather shorter than 

 the spikelet, five or seven nerved, the third seven to eleven nerved, both more or 

 less silky-hairy and empty. 

 Fruiting glume, smooth, acute. 



Value as a fodder. — Valuable as a lasting grass for moist meadows. 

 (Mueller.) 



Produces a fine bottom, although the panicles are large, dry, and 

 spreading, and give it anything but an inviting appearance ; it is a 

 kind well worth growing. — (Bailey.) 



Other uses. — The grain, known as " Power-tandra," is eaten by the 

 aborigines of Mount Lyndhurst, South Australia. — (Koch). 



Habitat and range. — In the more arid districts of this Colony, and 

 also of Victoria, South and Western Australia. 



2. Panicum divaricatissimum, ~Rj.Br. 



Botanical name. — Divaricatissimum, superlative of divaricatus, a 

 Latin word signifying straddling or spread out, in allusion to the 

 spreading branches of the panicle. 



Vernacular name. — u Spider Grass/' 



Where figured. — Agricultural Gazette. 



Botanical description (B. PL, vii, 467). — Stems from a branching 

 base, sometimes under, sometimes much above 1 foot high. 



Leaves glabrous or more or less pubescent or softly villous, the ligula not prominent 



and not ciliate. 

 Panicle of rather numerous rigidly filiform simple branches, 3 to 8 inches long, at 



first erect, at length spreading, the lower ones in a dense verticil, the upper 



ones alternate and distant. 

 Spikelets in pairs, or rarely solitary along the branches, one sessile, the other 



pedicellate, 1 to 1^ lines long, glabrous, or covered with long silky hairs, 



spreading when in fruit. 

 Outer glume very small, ovate, obtuse, the second and third nearly equal and both 



empty, or the third rarely with a minute rudimentary palea, the second usually 



three-nerved, the third five-nerved. 

 Fruiting glume ovoid, not gibbous, glabrous, smooth, acute. 



