944 



THE GRASS FAMILY. 



2, concave, nearly equal. Flowering glume concave, of a firmer tex- 

 ture, hard and shining when in fruit. 



A genus of very few species, but widely dispersed over the globe ; 

 differing from JPanieum chiefly by the want of the outermost small 

 glume, from the large tropical genus Paspalwrn only in inflorescence. 



1. Spreading Milium. Milium effusum, Linn. (Fig. 1141.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 1106.) 



A tall, slender Grass, often 4 or 5 

 feet high, with rather short, flat leaves, 

 and a long, loose, slender and spreading 

 panicle of small, pale-green or purple 

 spikelets. Empty glumes concave but 

 not keeled, 1 to 1| lines long, nearly 

 smooth. Flowering glume almost as 

 long, very smooth and shining. Palea 

 nearly similar but rather smaller, faintly 

 2-nerved, and notched at the top. 



In moist woods, widely spread over 

 Europe, Russian Asia, and North Ame- 

 rica, extending from the Mediterranean 

 to the Arctic Circle. Common in Bri- 

 tain. Fl. summer. 



Fig. 1141. 



III. PANICUM. PANICUM. 



Spikelets either in a loose or close and spike-like panicle, or along 

 one side of the simple branches of a panicle, usually small, 1-flowered, 

 rarely awned. Outer glumes usually 3 ; the first or lowest small, some- 

 times very minute, the next always empty, the third empty or with an 

 imperfect or male flower in its axil. Flowering glume concave, of a 

 firmer texture, hard when in fruit. Palea like the flowering glume, but 

 rather smaller, and more or less 2-nerved. 



A vast genus, chiefly tropical or North American, with a very few 

 species spreading into Russian Asia and Europe, including most of the 

 cultivated Millets of southern Europe, Africa, and Asia. It is in most 



