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More frequently met with than the preceding, in cultivated ground, 

 in various parts of England, but not indigenous. It prefers a light 

 sandy soil. A much smaller plant than D. sanguinalis, for which it 

 seems to have been frequently mistaken. Stems from a few inches to 

 near a foot in height, decumbent and spreading, but with little tendency 

 to root. Leaves flat, short, rather broad, rough at the margins, but 

 not hairy. Clustered spikes usually three or four. Spikelets ovate, 

 sometimes three together, shortly pedicellate. The whole plant is 

 occasionally more or less tinged with purple when in flower. 



Annual. Flowers in July and August. 



Botanists in general seem inclined to regard this .a distinct species, 

 and there are differences between them, that in many other genera 

 among the grasses would be considered decisive of the fact. The 

 result of several years' cultivation of the two in my own garden induces 

 me to entertain a different opinion ; they pass through intermediate 

 forms into each other. Linnaeus, it would seem, was not acquainted 

 with the plant to which the specific name sanguinalis is now given, 

 which is not found in Sweden, his Panicum, sanguinale being our 

 Digitaria humifusa : this fact will account for the title that appears so 

 much at variance with the aspect of the former, and which has led some 

 authors to gravely quote a very ludicrous interpretation of the same to 

 reconcile the inconsistency. The deep purple hue, often assumed by 

 the grass before us, resembling blood stain, might well lead to the 

 name in question, but could have n,o relation to its congener ; concern- 

 ing which we are told that, " D. sanguinalis has its specific name, not 

 from the colour as might be supposed, but from an idle trick which the 

 boys, in some parts of Grermany, have of pricking one another's nostrils 

 with its spikelets until they bleed !" 



