Panicum. 



GRAMINEiE. 



427 



sp. 1. p. 58 ; Michx. fl. 1. p. 47 ; Pars/*, j?. 1. p. 67 ; Muhl. gram. p. 124 ; Tbrr. fl. 1. 

 p. 149 ; Trin. diss. 2. p. 215, and Pan. gram. I. c. p. 291 ; Beck, hot. p. 396; Darlingt. 

 fl. Cest. p. 45 ; Kunth, enum. 1. p'. 114. P. strigosum, Ell. sk. 1. p. 126 ? 



Annual. Culm 1-2 feet high, often branching at the base, and forming a tuft. Leaves 

 flat, 2-5 lines wide, hairy ; the sheaths clothed with rigid spreading hairs. Panicle pyra- 

 midal, with slender straight branches which are somewhat diffracted when old. Spikelets 

 scarcely more than half a line long. Glumes often purplish. Perfect flower much shorter than 

 the neuter one, ovate. 



Sandy soils : common in cultivated grounds. Fl. August - September. When it grows in 

 dry woods, it is much more slender, and the leaves narrower. Late in the autumn, as re- 

 marked by Dr Darlington, "the dry culms break off, and the divaricate panicles are rolled 

 over the fields by the winds, until they accumulate in great quantities along fences and hedges." 



10. Panicum depauperatum, Muhl. Feiv-Jlowered Panic-grass. 



Culms cespitose, erect, mostly simple, hairy ; leaves narrowly linear, hairy underneath ; 

 sheaihs hispid (rarely smooth) ; panicle nearly simple, on a long peduncle, few-flowered, the 

 branches flexuous ; spikelets (middle-sized) obovate, pedicellate, rather acute, smoothish ; 

 glumes striate, acute ; lower glume ovate, a little distant, one third the length of the upper 

 one ; upper palea of the neuter flower very small. — Muhl. gram. p. 112 ; Torr.fl. I. p. 144; 

 Kunth, enum. 1. p. 107, not of Trin. P. rectum, Rcem. <§• Schult. syst. 2. p. 457 ; Torr. 

 I. c. ; Beck, hot. p. 396 ; Darlingt. fl. Cost. p. 45 ; Kunth, I. c. P. involutum, Torr. I. c. 



Perennial. Culm 8 — 15 inches high. Lowest leaves short and approximate ; upper ones 

 3-6 inches long, 1 - 1 h line wide, pale green, more or less hairy underneath, smoothish 

 above, fringed with a few long hairs toward the base, involute when old : sheaths more or less 

 villous with rather stiff spreading hairs. Panicle about 2 inches long, on a slender peduncle ; 

 the branches mostly in pairs, one of them bearing a single spikelet, the other two. Spikelets 

 about a line long, somewhat acuminate when dry, conspicuously striate. Lower glume broadly 

 ovate, inserted a little distance below the other. Neuter flower with the lower palea the length 

 of the larger glume, and one fourth longer than the ovate perfect flower. 



Dry sandy soils, particularly on hillsides : common. Fl. May - June. 



11. Panicum dichotomum, Linn. Polymorphous Panic- grass. 



Culm at first nearly simple, with a single pedunculate terminal compound panicle, but at 

 length more or less branched and fastigiate with small lateral nearly simple panicles ; spike- 

 lets minute, on long peduncles, obovate, mostly pubescent ; lower glume one third the length 

 of the upper ; lower flower neuter, the upper palea minute ; primary leaves broadly lanceo- 

 late, distant ; secondary leaves much smaller, linear-lanceolate, crowded. — Linn. sp. 1. p. 58 ; 

 Pursh, fl. 1. p. 367 ; Ell. sk. 1. p. 124 ; Muhl. gram. p. 112 ; Torr. fl. 1. p. 145 ; Beck, 

 hot. p. 395 ; Darlingt. fl. Cest. p. 46 ; Kunth, enum. 1. p. 105. P. nitidum, Lam. enc. 4. 



54* 



