THE LINNAEAN CONCEPT OF PEARL MILLET 
Agnes Chase 
(Received for publication July 19, 1920) 
The commonly cultivated pearl millet has passed under more aliases, 
probably, than has any other grass. When the layman asks the botanist 
why he calls plants by such queer names the botanist tells him that it is 
for the sake of precision, that a given plant may bear a different common 
name in each country it inhabits, or in different parts of the same country, 
but that the Latin name is the same throughout the world. If the layman 
were acquainted with the Latin synonymy of pearl millet he could cite it 
to refute the botanist's defense. In the analysis of the Linnaean concept 
which follows, the common names, pearl millet and yellow foxtail, are used 
for the sake of precision instead of the Latin names. (The argument for 
Latin names is in the main, of course, valid, the exceptional case of pearl 
millet notwithstanding.) 
Early in the last century pearl millet had almost as many names as there 
were floras. Pennisetum typhoideum, Penicillaria spicata, Panicum spica- 
tum, and Pennisetum alopecuroides were the most popular. By the middle 
of the century the other names had mostly dropped out of use, giving place 
to Pennisetum typhoideum. In 1895, early in the period of modern nomen- 
clatorial unrest which still agitates us, Dr. K. Schumann^ "on the ground 
of priority" published for pearl millet the name Pennisetum americanum, 
based on ''Panicum americanum L." In 1914 S. C. Stuntz took up the 
name Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br., based on ''Panicum glaucum L., 
based on a specimen from Ceylon." This is the name applied to pearl 
millet in recent American publications. Robert Brown applied the name 
P. glaucum to yellow foxtail, which was his understanding of Linnaeus's 
species. Mr. Stuntz published Chaetochloa lutescens, based on Panicum 
lutescens Weigel, for the foxtail. 
Dr. Otto Stapf in a recent note on " Setaria glauca and S. lutescens,'' a 
copy of which was sent to Dr. A. S. Hitchcock before publication, holds 
that one should proceed with great caution before shuffling names which 
involve a grass of economic importance and also a well-known weed. With 
this opinion I heartily agree. All the names of pearl millet mentioned 
above are based upon Linnaean names. In order to arrive at a decision 
(necessitated in revising the North American species of Pennisetum), I 
have made an analysis of the Linnaean names involved in the problem. 
^ Page references are given in the bibliography. 
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