68 
Tribe I. PANICE^. 
PANICIIM, Limu 
(Prom panicula, a panicle ; or panis^ bread.) 
Spikelets with one terminal hermaphrodite flower and occasionally 
a male or rudimentary flower below it, rarely awned, variously 
arranged along the branches of a simple or compound panicle rarely 
reduced to a simple spike, the partial rhachis very rarely produced 
beyond the last spikelet ; barren awnlike branches none, or very rarely 
a single one. Grlunies usually 4, the outer one smaller than the others, 
not awned, often very small, deficient only in P. gihhosum (a rare 
species found in a few* parts of Queensland and North Australia); 
the second and third very variable in relative proportions, the third 
occasionally with a palea with or without stamens in its axil ; fourth 
or fruiting glume smaller or as long as the third, of a firmer con- 
sistence, enclosing a palea and hermaphrodite flower. Styles distinct 
or very shortly united at the base. Grrain enclosed in the hardened 
fruiting glume and palea, but free from them. 
P. Sd;Xlguilial6, Linn. Summer Grass of Queensland. Decum- 
bent and often shortly creeping and rooting at the base, ascending to 
2 or 3 feet. Leaves flaccid, flat, usually pubescent and sprinkled with 
long hairs especially on the sheaths, but sometimes nearly glabrous. 
Spikes or panicle-branches 3 to 8, crowded at the end' of a long 
peduncle, all from nearly the same point or shortly distant, 2 to 5 
inches long, the rhachis slender but angular, fiexuose, scabrous-ciliate. 
Spikelets in pairs, one nearly sessile, the other pedicellate, oblong, 
rather acute, above H lines long. Outer glume minute, rarely above 
i-line long, second glume lanceolate, 3-nerved, from a-half to three- 
fourths the length of tlie spikelbt, third glume usually 5-nerved, glab- 
rous or slightly ciliate, in the Australian form empty. Eruiting glume 
shorter, smooth. 
