Order GRAMINEZE. 
Genus Panicum. 
Sub-Order Panice^e. 
Genus VII.—PANICUM, Linnaeus. 
Spikelets variously arranged, naked, or with bristles at their base; spiked, racemed, or panicled; 
I-flowered, or, if 2-flowered, the lower male. Glumes 4, awned or awnless ; lowest small or minute, 
empty ; second larger, empty; third empty, or male-flowered, uppermost with a hermaphrodite flower, 
fainter-nerved, smooth, hardening and enclosing the palea and grain. Falea like the glume, but 
smaller, 2-nerved. Scales 2, truncate. Stamens 3. Grain free. Distribution of Genus : 
TROPICAL AND SUB-TROPICAL CLIMATES. Etymology: From the Latin name “ Panis ” 
(Bread). 
1.—PANICUM IMBECILLE. 
SLENDER PANICK GRASS. 
{Plate XI.) 
Orthopogon temulus, Brown 
Hekaterosachne elatior, Steudel. 
Oplismenus a^mulus, Kunth. Hook, fil., FI. N.Z., I., 291. 
Panicum imbecille, Trinius. Hook, fil., ITandb. N.Z. Flora, I., 323. 
A weak, slender, decumbent grass, rooting at the nodes, culms erect, 6—18 inches long, sparingly 
branched, ascending to 1000 —1500 feet altitude. Flowers December—February. Perennial. Leaves 
1—6 inches long, J—1 inch broad, lanceolate; sheaths of leaves and knots of culms more or less 
pilose. Spikelets spiked, in distant clusters of 2—6, nearly sessile, I-inch long, glabrous or pilose, 
naked, or with a brush of hairs at base. Empty glumes 3, often pilose on the back, membranous; first 
empty glume shortest, 3-nerved, and with a long flexuose, stout, obtuse awn ; second empty glume larger, 
sharply acute, 5-nerved, and with a very short awn; third empty glume acute, 7-nerved. Flowering 
glume obtuse, coriaceous, white, 2-nerved. Scales 2, truncate or bilobate. Ovary glabrous. Styles 
long. Stigmas shorter, penicillate. Grain linear. Distribution of Species : TROPICS OF 
ASIA, AFRICA, AND AMERICA; AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND. 
A sparse foliaged grass, not adapted for pasture, its usual habitat being under the shelter of bush. 
It may be termed an unsocial grass, as it is most commonly found growing in isolated patches, and it 
probably could not exist under a struggle for place with grasses of more robust habit on open land. 
Cattle eat this grass readily, but their relish for it must be greatly lessened by the large amount of 
foreign matter, such as dead leaves, with which it is usually associated; it may, therefore, be classed 
with other bush grasses, such as Microlcena avenacea , as an auxiliary to supplement neighbouring 
pastures during dry seasons. 
