23 



slender ; bearing a soft, almost silky spike of a pale whitish hue, 

 which, in luxuriant specimens, has a length of about an inch and 

 a quarter, with a diameter of nearly an inch at the base. The 

 leaves are linear -lanceolate, having long inflated sheaths, by which 

 the stem is almost completely invested. The silky appearance of 

 the inflorescence is due to the numerous delicate hairs that fringe 

 the glumes from the base to the extremity of their slender bristle- 

 like terminations. These glumes are more than twice the length 

 of the palese, and include the obscure rudiment of a second flower. 

 The outer palea terminates in two bristles almost equalling it in 

 length, and bears a very long jointed and twisted awn springing 

 from above the middle of its back; the inner one is devoid of 

 such appendages, but its pointed apex is more or less slightly 

 cloven. ' 



Annual. Flowers in June. 



It is an elegant little grass, but of no economical value. Cul- 

 tivated in gardens, the spikes sometimes attain a length of two 

 inches or more and are nearly cylindrical. 



Genus 9. MILIUM. Millet Grass. 



Gen. Chae. Inflorescence loosely panicled. Spikelets stalked, 

 one-flowered. Glumes two, nearly equal, not compressed, 

 herbaceous, broadly lanceolate, acute, longer than the flower, 

 and enclosing it. Palese two, awnless j becoming hard and 

 investing the ripening fruit. 



About fourteen species are enumerated as belonging to this 

 genus, none of which appear to be of any agricultural value. Not- 

 withstanding "the English name, it must not be supposed that the 

 several kinds of nutritious grain called Millet are the produce of 

 the grasses before us, all of them being . derived from genera of 

 widely difierent structure. In regard to the derivation of Milium, 

 botanical writers are divMed ; some deducing it from the Latin 

 mille, a thousand, in allusion to the abundance of seed produced 

 by the numerously branched panicle of the common species ; while 

 others trace it to the Celtic mil, a stone or pebble, as referring to 

 the hardness of its glossy fruit. A single species only is found in 

 the British Islands. 



Milium effttsum. Common Millet Grass. Plate XX. 



Panicle loose, its branches spreading and subverticillate. Palese 

 acute. Stem smooth. Leaves hnear-lanceolate : ligule obtuse. 



Milium effusum, Linnceus. E. B, 1 106 ; ed. 2. 93. Generally 

 adopted. 



