230 BULLETIN 772, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
3 mm. long. It is com- 
monly cultivated in tropi- 
cal America for forage 
and has been introduced 
for this purpose in Flor- 
ida and southern Texas 
and also into the Tropics 
of the Old World. In 
Porto Eico it is called 
malojilla. This species 
has been incorrectly re- 
ferred to P. moUe Swartz. 
A field of Para grass 
soon becomes a tangle of 
stolons and the decumbent 
bases of the stems, and for best results it 
must be renewed by plowing or disking. 
Panicum Tnaximum Jacq., guinea grass, 
is a perennial erect bunch-grass, 4 to 6 
feet tall, with open spreading panicles 
of elliptic spikelets about 3 mm. long, 
the fruit rugose. This is a native of 
Africa, introduced into tropical America, 
where it is cultivated for forage, fur- 
nishing pasture and green feed. It is 
said to have been introduced into Ja- 
maica from west tropical Africa in 1774. 
These two species, Para grass and guinea 
grass are the only grasses that are ex- 
tensively cultivated for forage in tropi- 
cal America. Panicum miliaceum L., 
proso millet, broom-corn millet, hog 
millet, an erect annual 2 to 3 feet tall, 
with a drooping panicle, is cultivated in Europe for the seed, which 
is used for foo4. It is sparingly cultivated in this country for forage. 
Fig. 138. — Panicum dichoto- 
pium. Plant, X i ; two 
views of spikelet and fertile 
floret, X 10. 
