948 



THE GRASS FAMILY. 



6. Cockspur Panicum. Panicum Crus-galli, Linn, 

 (Fig. 1147.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 876. Echinochloa, Bab. Man.) 



A coarse decumbent, rather broad- 

 leaved annual. Panicle 4 to 6 inches 

 long, irregularly pyramidal, and rather 

 one-sided ; the spikelets larger than in 

 the preceding species, crowded or clus- 

 tered along the spike-like branches, the 

 lowest of which are 1 to 2 inches long, 

 diminishing gradually to the top. Lowest 

 glume very short and broad, the next 

 about the length of the flower, empty 

 and awnless, the third about as long, 

 ending in either a short point or a long, 

 coarse awn, and has often a thin palea 

 in its axil. Flowering glume awnless, 

 smooth and shining. 



Almost as common and widely-spread 

 a weed of hot countries, especially in the 

 old world, as the fingered P. and the 

 glaucous JP., and more abundant than 

 either of them in temperate Europe and 

 Russian Asia, extending northwards to 

 southern Scandinavia. In Britain, occasionally only, as a weed of cul- 

 tivation in southern England. Fl. the whole summer and autumn. 



Fig. 1147. 



IY. HOLYGRASS. HIEEOCHLOE. 



Panicle exotic spreading (in some species narrow and crowded). 

 Spikelets 3-flowered ; the 2 lower flowers male only, with 3 stamens j 

 the uppermost smaller but hermaphrodite, with 2 stames. Glumens 

 all scarious, boat-shaped, keeled, and pointed ; the outer empty 

 ones as long as the flowers. 



A genus of several species, spread over the colder regions of both 

 the northern and southern hemispheres, and closely allied on the one 

 hand to Anthoxanth, on the other to Holcus. 



