946 



THE GRASS FAMILY. 



2. G-labrous Panicum. Panicum glabrum, Gaud. 



(Fig. 1143.) 



(Dlgitaria humifttsa, Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 2613.) 



Very much like the fingered P., 

 but a much smaller plant; the panicle 

 has only 2 or 3 spike-like branches, each 

 scarcely above an inch long, and the 

 spikelets are fewer. The first glume is, 

 as in the last species, very minute, but 

 the two next empty ones are both about 

 the same length as the flowering glume. 



A weed of warm climates, like the last, 

 but rather less tropical, more generally 

 spread over central Europe, extending 

 northward to southern Scandinavia, and 

 better established in the south of Eng- 

 land. Fl. summer and autumn. 



Fig. 1143. 



3. Rough Panicum. Panicum verticillatum, Linn. 



(Eig. 1144.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 874. Setaria, Brit. EL) 



A glabrous, erect annual, 1 to 2 feet 

 high, with flat leaves, rough on the edges. 

 Spikelets small, crowded into a cylindri- 

 cal but rather loose, compound spike (or 

 rather spike-like panicle), 1 to 2 inches 

 long, interspersed with numerous bris- 

 tles, 2 or 3 lines long, inserted under 

 the spikelets but projecting beyond them. 

 These are rough with minute hairs, re- 

 versed so as to cling to the hand when 

 the spike is drawn downwards through 

 the fingers. First glume very small, the 

 two next about the length of the flower- 

 ing one. 



In cultivated and waste places, very 

 common in southern Europe, and gene- 

 Fig. 1144. nerally spread over central Europe to 

 the Baltic, and eastward into Eussian Asia, but much rarer in hot 

 countries than the two following species. In Britain, it appears occa- 

 sionally in the south of England. Fl. summer and autumn. 



