46 
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
[Vol. 8 
Panicum miliaceum and a head of pearl millet or of common millet 
when he wrote the description?] 
Summing up the problem as it stands after the publication of the second 
edition of the Species Plantarum, we have: 
1. P. alopecuroides: the diagnosis applying to pearl millet, the descrip- 
tion to the Chinese species, the citations from Plukenet and the habitat 
applying to neither. 
P. cynosuroides and P. americanum are omitted. 
2. P. glaucum: both diagnosis and description are composites of the 
characters of pearl millet and yellow foxtail; the citation from Gronovius 
refers to the foxtail. 
3. Holms spicatus: the diagnosis with a minor exception applies to pearl 
millet; the description applies partly to Panicum miliaceum (?) and partly 
to pearl millet (?) Three of the citations refer to pearl millet and two to 
an unidentifiable figure. 
1767. Systema Naturae ed. 12: 86-87,669. 
Panicum alopecuroides is exactly that of the tenth edition of the Systema 
[altered from Species Plantarum to fit pearl millet]. 
Panicum glaucum: the diagnosis is that of the tenth edition [applying 
to pearl millet], the reference to "Sp. PI." omitted, and ''Pedunculus valde 
sulcatus" applying to yellow foxtail added. 
Holcus spicatus: the diagnosis is that of the tenth edition, applying 
fairly well to pearl millet. The reference to Plukenet is omitted. 
1 77 1. Mantissa Plantarum 2: 322. 
"Panicum alopecuroid. Excludatur et reformatum restituatur sequenti- 
bus." The diagnosis now reads: "spica tereti, involucellis setaceis fascicu- 
latis bifloris, pedunculis villosis" [applying well to pearl millet]. The 
second Plukenet reference (that to the unidentifiable pi. 92. /. 5) is cited, 
''Habitat in India orientali.'' The description given in the first and second 
editions of the Species Plantarum is dropped and a new one inserted: 
''Statura Panici italici. Culmi et totum villosum. Folia latitudine 
digiti transversi, utrinque pilosa, etiam vaginis. Spica magnitudine digiti 
ex Involucellis multiseto-fasciculatis, villosis, scabris, bifloris, pedicellatis, 
longitudine flosculorum. Florum valvula accessoria longitudine reli- 
quarum." [The statement that the sheaths and both sides of the blades 
are pilose does not apply to pearl millet, nor does that of the accessory valve 
as long as the rest, whether either of the glumes or the sterile lemma is 
meant. If Linnaeus had a ripe spikelet of pearl millet with the globose 
grain forcing apart the lemma and palea, he might have meant that the 
lemma, palea, and grain are of equal length, which would be correct.] 
Panicum glaucum and Holcus spicatus are not given in the Mantissa, 
being in their author's mind, doubtless, in no need of correction. 
