844 
and Theophrastos’ time. Annual, attaining a height of 
4 feet. Several varieties occur, one with black grains. 
They all need a rich hut friable soil. It is one of the best 
of all grains for poultry, hut furnishes also a palatable and 
nutritious table-food. It ripens still in Middle Europe. 
Panicum pilosum, Swartz. 
Tropical America. A perenniiil fodder-grass. 
Panicum repens, E. 
At the Mediterranean Sea, also in South Asia and North 
Australia. Eegarded by the Cinghalese as a good fodder- 
grass. It is perennial and well suited for naturalization on 
moist soil or river-banks or swamps. 
Panicum prostratum, Lam. (P. setigerum, Eetz.) 
Egypt, South Asia, North Australia, perhaps also indigenous 
to tropical America. Perennial. Eecommendable for pas- 
tures. 
Panicum spectabile, Nees.* 
The Ooapim of Angola. From West Africa transferred to 
many other tropical countries. A rather succulent very 
fattening grass, attaining a height of about 4 feet. It 
may be assumed, that hitherto about 300 well-defined 
species of Panicum are knoAvn, chiefly tropical and sub- 
tropical, thus very few extending naturally to Europe, or 
the United States of North America, or Japan, or the 
southern part of Australia. Though mostly from the hot 
zones these grasses endure in many instances our clime, 
and some of them would prove great acquisitions, particu- 
larly the perennial species. Numerous good kinds occur in 
Queensland and North Australia spontaneously. Panicum 
is the genus richest in species among grasses. 
Papaver somniferum, L.* 
The Opium-Poppy. Orient. The capsules of this tall annual, 
so showy for its flowers, are used for medicinal purposes ; 
from the minute but exceedingly numerous seeds, oil of a 
harmless and most palatable kind can be pressed remuner- 
atively ; but a still more importairt use of the plant is that 
for the preparation of Opium, of which a quantity valued in 
