PANICUM PSILOPODIUM, Trin: 



[Vide Plate XXVI]. 



English, none ; Veenaculae, kutki (Bundelkliand), mijhri (Mirzapur). 



Natural order Graminece, tribe Panicece. Annual, erect. Stems many, 1^-2 ft. high, striate ^ 

 smooth and polished. Leaves falling short of the panicles, narrow and tapering to a fine point, 5- 

 nerved ; ligule short, torn and ciliate. Panicles slender, erect ; branches capillary, flexuose. Spikelets 

 smaller than those of P. miliaceum, on slender ascending pedicles, 2 -flowered ; outer glume smaller 

 than and embracing the inner glume at the base, ovate with a blunt point, 3-nerved ; inner glume 

 many-nerved, ovate, lanceolate, acute ; pales of the lower (sterile floret ) of equal length ; pales of the 

 fertile florets cartilaginous. Grain closely invested by the pales, small, ovate, pointed, dark brown 

 when ripe, and polished. 



The cultivation of this millet is almost entirely restricted to the extreme south of 

 the Provinces, where the conditions are those of Central India. It is a very common 

 crop in the hilly portions of the Central Provinces. The area under it in Bundelkand is 

 returned as 16,847 acres, 11,553 acres of which are in the district of Lalitpur, which 

 geographically belongs to the Central Provinces. The area which it covers in the south 

 of the Allahabad and Mirzapur Districts has not been ascertained. An allied species {P. 

 miliare, Linn.) is also, we believe, cultivated along with this crop, or in similar localities 

 under the name of kutJci. 



It is sown in June and reaped in October, forming, together with kodon, the crop 

 which is generally taken from the poorest land in the village. Indeed it is often grown 

 on soils which could hardly produce a crop of kodon. Its average product of grain to 

 the acre is returned as not exceeding 2 maunds. 



1. Entire plant, (reduced to \ size.) 



2. Upper part with inflorescence, (nat. size.) 



3. Spikelet, enlarged. 



Explanation of Plate XXVI. 



4. Flower with pales and lodicules removed, ) 



5. Grain with withered remains of pales, r enlarged. 

 0, Inner pale, ) 



Drawn from a living specimen in the Saharanpur Garden. 



* References Trin. Diss. ii. 217 ; Nees in Mart. FL.Braz. ii. 199. 



