Jan.-, 192 1] CHASE — THE LINNAEAN CONCEPT OF PEARL MILLET 
43 
reference in the first edition and applies to pearl millet. "Seminibus 
undulato-rugosis " applies only to the Gronovian plant, yellow foxtail. 
The reference to no. 2 7 would indicate that Linnaeus wishes to attach the 
name glaucum to the Gronovian plant. The variety j8 of the first edition 
is now named P. viride. The diagnosis is an exact repetition of that for 
glaucum just above except for the last phrase, which is "seminibus nervosis." 
The "fasciculato pilosis" does not apply to this species of Chaetochloa any 
more than it does to the other. 
Paralleling this evolution of P. glaucum in Linnaeus's mind is that of 
P. alopecur aides, the first species of Panicum in the Species Plantarum 
(page 55). ''Habitat in China" is given as the source of that species. 
Concerning the plant in the Linnaean Herbarium, Dr. Stapf writes: 
"The diagnosis and the description fit the plant very well. It is the same plant 
which R. Brown described subsequently as Pennisetum compressum. The specimen is 
numbered i — the number of Panicum alopecuroideum in Species Plantarum, ed. i. — by 
Linnaeus, and the country given by him is 'Chin.' The name alopecuroideum is not in 
his handwriting. There is, however, another sheet, written up by him 'alopecuroideum,' 
but this is not numbered, nor is there anything to show where he had it from; this is a 
starved specimen of Pennisetum spicatum = P. americanum f. (26) sieberianum Leeke " 
[one of the forms of pearl millet]. 
Besides the diagnosis and unusually good description Linnaeus cites a 
figure of Plukenet which, according to Trinius and Stapf (and to all appear- 
ances), represents Perotis latifolia. In the Systema (2: 870) "basi ciliatis" 
is inserted in the di^gnosi^ following "involucris setaceis." Bristles with 
ciliate base are found not in the Chinese species but in pearl millet. 
A third name involved is P. americanum, the third species of Panicum in 
the Species Plantarum (page 56). This is composed of 
Panicum spica simplici aequali, pedunculis bifloris. Roy. lugdb. 54. [Un- 
identifiable by the writer; may be pearl millet.] 
Panicum indicum, spica obtusa caerulea. Bauh. pin. 7. theatr. 522. [The 
"theatr." referred to is the illustrated Theatri botanici, 1658. The 
figure is copied, by tracing evidently, since it is reversed, from that in 
Clusius (see below) illustrating Panicum americanum.] 
Panicum americanum Clus. hist. 2. p. 215. [The figure referred to is a 
branching plant with thick heads, about half as broad as long, in the 
axils of the upper leaves. It can not by any stretch of imagination be 
taken for pearl millet. The description suggests a large form of 
common millet, Chaetochloa italica]. 
"Habitat in America." 
Since there is no description, we may assume that Linnaeus was naming 
a species he did not know, that is, he was giving a name to certain references 
in books. Since he appropriates the Clusian name that may be taken as the 
basis of his name. Clusius's species being unidentifiable, the name may be 
rejected. A figure on page 216 of Clusius's work entitled "Panicum Americ. 
sesquipedaHs spica" is unmistakably pearl millet. But it is not this figure 
that Linnaeus cites, nor the Clusian description of it, differentiating it from 
