etrous, dorsally rounded,
glabrous and very thinly scaberulous at the edges. _Spikes_ are many
(fifteen and more), sessile, secund, generally longer than the
internodes, and appressed to the rachis, 1/4 to 1-1/2 inches long; the
rachis of the spike is angular, edges scaberulous and with very fine
short hairs.

The _spikelets_ are pale, ovoid, acute, biseriate, imbricate, very
shortly pedicellate, glabrous, 1/16 to 1/8 inch, pedicels are hairy with
a few long hairs towards the base.

There are four _glumes_. The _first glume_ is white, thin, membranous,
truncate and wavy at the apex, nerveless or sometimes with one to three
short nerves, less than one-third of the third glume, broader than long
and clasping at the base. The _second glume_ is ovate, obtuse or
subacute, concave, submembranous, slightly shorter than the fourth
glume, 5-nerved but occasionally 6- or 7-nerved. The _third glume_ is a
little longer than the second and the fourth, usually 5-nerved, broadly
ovate, acute, paleate, always with three stamens which come out only
after the fading of the stigmas and enlargement of the ovary in the
fourth glume. _Lodicules_ are distinct and conspicuous; _palea_ is broad
with incurved broad margins and hyaline. The _fourth glume_ is thinly
coriaceous, shining, striolate, broadly ovate, mucronate, compressed,
faintly and thinly 5-nerved and _palea_ with infolded margins. _Anthers_
are yellow. _Stigmas_ are white when young. _Lodicules_ are distinct.

It is a common grass of the wet lands met with in many parts of the
Presidency and often confused and united with _Panicum punctatum_, Burm.

_Distribution._--Throughout India and Ceylon. It is also found in
Arabia, Afghanistan, Africa and Tropical America.

[Illustration: Fig. 86.--Panicum Crus-galli.]

=Panicum Crus-galli, _L._=

It is a tufted annual with many erect branches growing to a height
varying from 2 to 3 or 4 feet and the whole plant is glabrous. Stem is
stout or slender, simple or branched.

The _leaf-sheath_ is smooth, glabrous and loose, varying in length from
2 to 6 inches, keeled. The _ligule_ is only a smooth semilunar line
without hairs. _Nodes_ are glabrous and the lower nodes bear
adventitious roots.

The _leaf-blade_ is narrowly linear-lanceolate, flat, finely acuminate,
glabrous or very minutely scabrid with a stout midrib; margin is
minutely serrate and with tubercle-based hairs near the base. The blades
of the lower leaves are longer tha