CXIII. GRAMINEJ2 581 
Occasional in the plains, ascending to 6000 ft. and usually growing in wet 
places. — Temperate and subtropical Himalaya. 
3. PANICUM The classical name. — A vast genus represented 
in all warm countries, but most abundant in the Tropics; it 
includes most of the cultivated Millets. 
Annual or perennial ; stems erect or more or less decumbent, 
sometimes rooting at the lower joints. Leaves flat ; sheaths hairy 
at the mouth and often along the margins. Ligule none or a ring 
of hairs. Spikelets ovoid, in., 2-flowered, stalked or sessile, 
jointed below the empty glumes, more or less crowded on straight 
spikes distributed along the rhachis or combined in a panicle. 
Glumes 4 ; 2 lower membranous, empty, lowest small but always 
obvious, the next longer ; third membranous, nearly equal to the 
fourth, containing a male or a rudimentary flower ; fourth of firmer 
texture containing a 2-sexual, fertile flower. Stamens 3. Styles 2, 
free nearly to the base. Grain free, enclosed within the shining, 
hardened glume and -pale. 
Spikelets glabrous. 
Spikelets nearly or quite sessile. 
Spikes alternate on the rhachis 
Spikes crowded in a panicle. 
Stems 6-18 in. Annual 
Stems 2-6 ft. Perennial 
Spikelets long-stalked . 
Spikelets hairy. 
Spikelets in clusters of three. Leaves long. 
Spikelets awned 
Spikelets awnless. Leaves i in. broad . 
Spikelets alternate. Leaves short, 1-2 in. . 
. 1. P. Jlavidum. 
. 6. P. plicatwn. 
. 7. P. rhachitrichum. 
. 5. P. psilopodium. 
. 2. P. Crus-galli. 
. 8. P. colonum. 
. 4. P. villosum. 
*1. Panicum flavidum, Betz . ; FI. Br. Lid. vii. 28. Annual ; 
stems branching from near the base, 1-2 ft., erect, leafy. Leaves 
glabrous except near the top of the sheath, 3-5 x in. Spikelets 
glabrous, sessile, crowded in 2 rows on several erect spikes J-l in. 
long, alternate on the rhachis. Lower empty glume half the length 
of the upper ; uppermost glume minutely dotted, abruptly pointed. 
Common in watery places on the plains throughout India, ascending to 
5000 ft. — Tropical Asia and Africa. 
2. Panicum Crus-galli, Linn . ; FI. Br. Ind. vii. 30. Annual ; 
stems 2-3 ft., ascending from a decumbent base. Leaves long, 
•^-1 in. broad, glabrous or hairy. Spikelets about y 1 ^ in., excluding 
the awns, minutely bristly, in clusters of 3, one nearly sessile, the 
other two unequally stalked, crowded on the numerous branches 
of a close, erect, narrow panicle ; branches i-4 in. Lower empty 
glume broad, about one third the length of the shortly awned, upper 
one. Lower flowering glume long-awned, awns very variable in 
length. 
