44 
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
[Vol. 8 
his Panicum americanum. In 1759 (Syst. Nat. ed. 10. 2: 870) the phrase 
name cited in the Species Plantarum from "Roy. lugdb. 54," is given, but 
the reference to Royen is omitted. In the second edition of Species Plan- 
tarum (1762, p. 82) Panicum americanum is omitted. The phrase names 
cited under it in the first edition are now placed under Holcus spicatus (p. 
1484). The name was not used for a species in any subsequent wo^k of 
Linnaeus, nor elsewhere until taken up by Schumann in 1895, and trans- 
ferred to Pennisetum. Schumann says the plant was sent to Linnaeus from 
America, but there is no evidence that he ever had an actual specimen 
that he called Panicum americanum. 
Following alopecur aides i" with its altered diagnosis in the Systema 
is " cynosuroid. A. P[anicum] spica tereti involucellis unifloris, rails pilosis," 
nothing more. The peduncles of the fascicles in the Chinese species are 
pilose. Having applied alopecuroides'' to pearl millet did Linnaeus mean 
to call the Chinese plant cynosuroides''? If so he changed his mind, for 
he never uses P. cynosuroides again. 
In the second volume of the Systema (1759, page 1305) another factor 
enters into the problem. Panicum is placed under Triandria Digynia. 
Under Polygamia Monoecia, in the genus Holcus (containing two cultivated 
sorghums, Johnson grass, and six other species not congeneric with the 
sorghums), is published Holcus spicatus "glumis bifloris muticis, floribus 
geminis penicillo involucratis, spica ovato-oblonga. Pluk. t. 32. f. 4." 
The diagnosis is original and applies well enough to pearl millet. Plukenet's 
figure is also very probably pearl millet. 
So far we have: (i) alopecuroides altered to fit pearl millet (China is 
never again mentioned in connection with this name; (2) cynosuroides 
(probably a species of Pennisetum), a name not to appear again; (3) 
glaucum, the diagnosis altered and applied to var. 7 of the Species Plan- 
tarum, but with part of the original diagnosis (applying to pearl millet but 
not to yellow foxtail) remaining; (4) Holcus spicatus, the diagnosis applying 
fairly well to pearl millet and the figure cited almost certainly meant for 
that species. 
1762. SiECiES Plantarum ed. 2: 82, 83. 
Panicum alopecuroideum is here composed of: (i) The altered diagnosis 
from the Systema [the bristles ciliate at base applying to pearl millet]. (2) 
The reference to Plukenet's figure of Perotis latifolia queried. (3) " Gramen 
indicum alopecuroides holosericum majus, spica longa pappescente. Pluk. 
aim. 177. t. 92./. 5." [The figure is unidentifiable. I took it for Pennisetum 
polystachyum (L.) Schult. of India, but Dr. Stapf writes that a sample of the 
Plukenet original in the Morison Herbarium at Oxford is Melica ciliata. 
With that species in mind I can see that it looks more like that than it does 
like P. polystachyum.] (4) ''Habitat in Jamaica." [This habitat is un- 
accountable.] (5) The description, unaltered, from the first edition [apply- 
ing to the Chinese plant]. 
