PANIOUM FRUMENTACEUM, RoxK' 



[Vide Plate XXIV.] 



Description. 



Varieties, 



Distribution. 



English, none ; Vernaculae, sawan, sanwan, sawan-bliadelia (Barabauki), sajna or samei 

 (Bijnor) ; Sanscrit, shyamaka.f 



Natural order Graminece, tribe Panicece. An annual herbaceous grass. Stems erect, or in rich 

 ground prostrate below and freely rooting from the nodes, 2-4 ft., compressed, striate, smooth. 

 Leaves large, usually overtopping the panicles ; sheaths 5-6 in., smooth, compressed, and somewhat 

 ■winged on the back ; blade a foot or more in length, and about an inch across, rough especially at 

 the margins and on the veins with forward prickles. Panicles 6-8 in. long, composed of condensed 

 incurved rigid spikes which closely or loosely surround the 5-6-angled main rachis ; panicle branches 

 with tufts of long hairs at the base. Spikelets usually in threes, one sessile, the other two on pedi- 

 cles of unequal length, arranged on a 3-angled rachis. Glumes unequal, 3-5-nerved, cuspidate pubes- 

 cent, hyaline, nerves green, margin ciliate ; lower one much smaller, broadly ovate ; inner glume 

 5-nerved, rounded on the back, mucronate or awned ; pales of the sterile flowers equal, the outer one 

 cuspidate, the inner narrowly oval and with inflexed margins ; pales of the hermaphrodite flowers 

 about equal, cartilaginous, mucronate, outer rounded on the back, veins 5, indistinct, inner flat, 

 with inflexed membranous edges. Lodicules 2, fleshy, entire, truncate. Stamens 3, exserted, erect ; 

 anthers large, pink. Styles nearly twice as long as the two crimson feathery stigmas. Fruit (the 

 grain) closely invested by the pales, ovate, smooth. 



This is the quickest growing of all the millets, being reported in some districts to 

 ripen within six weeks of its sowing. It is grown as a rain crop, being generally sown 

 at the commencement of the monsoon, and cut by the end of August. A spring crop 

 usually follows it. It is considered by Hindus a very pure grain, and is used for religi- 

 ous offerings in preference to all others. 



There are several varieties ; two are distinguished in the Azamgarli District by the 

 height of the plant, which in one case is between 3 and 4 feet, and in the other between 

 2 and 3 feet. 



The tracts in which its cultivation is commonest are Rohilkhand, the hill portion 

 of Bundelkhand, and the Ghazipur and Azaragarh Districts of the Benares Division. In 

 the Bareilly and Azamgarli Districts it annually covers over 11,000 acres. In the drier 

 districts of the Ganges- Jumna Doab its cultivation is rarer, and it is more commonly 

 grown as a subordinate crop in juar fields than alone. The extent to which it is grown 

 in the 30 temporarily settled districts of the N.-W. Provinces is shown below : — 



• References :— Roxb. Fl. ind. L 304. 



237 ; Gaz. N.-W. P. Vol. x. 689. 

 t Piddington Index 66. 



Oplismenus frumentaceus, Kunth Eaam, i. 146 ; Baden-Powell Pnnj. Prod. 



B 2 



• 



