d. The
_second glume_ is nearly equal to the third, ovate acute, generally
7-nerved and sometimes 7- to 13-nerved. The _third glume_ is similar to
the second in shape, generally 5-nerved and occasionally 7-nerved,
paleate with three stamens or empty; _palea_ 2-nerved, ovate or oblong,
margins infolded. The _fourth glume_ is ovate or oblong, rugulose,
chartaceous, apex with a distinct mucro concealed in the second and
third glumes; _palea_ same as the glume in texture, etc. _Anthers_ are
yellowish; _stigmas_ are feathery and purple in colour; _lodicules_ are
small and fleshy.

This is an excellent fodder grass. Though it is an annual it grows
rapidly under favourable conditions. A single plant found growing in the
compound of the Agricultural College, Coimbatore, weighed 15 lb. and
occupied 15 square feet of the ground. It flourishes in cultivated dry
fields and in rich loamy soils. (See fig. 7.)

_Distribution._--Plains of India and Ceylon and in Tropical countries
generally.

[Illustration: Fig. 95.--Panicum ramosum.]

=Panicum ramosum, _L._=

This is an annual with stems erect or ascending from a creeping base,
rooting at the lower nodes, 1 to 2 feet long. The stem is slender or
stout, usually glabrous though occasionally glabrescent or pubescent,
channelled on one side, branched from base upwards, and leafy.

The _leaf-sheath_ is finely striate, keeled, thinly pubescent with the
margins ciliate near the ligule. The _ligule_ is only a fringe of short
hairs. _Nodes_ are softly hairy.

The _leaf-blade_ is flat, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, softly pubescent
or glabrescent on both the surfaces, with rounded or subcordate base and
margins minutely serrate and ciliate, 2 to 6 inches long 1/6 to 1/2 inch
broad; the midrib is distinct though slender with four to six main veins
on each side.

The _inflorescence_ is a pyramidal panicle 2 to 6 inches long,
consisting of usually five to ten (rarely also up to twenty) erect or
spreading spikes. _Spikes_ are distant, alternate and in some the lower
ones are opposite, 1/2 to 2-1/2 inches long or shorter. The _rachis_ of
the spike is thin, angular and scaberulous.

The _spikelets_ are usually pubescent, ovoid or obovoid, acute, turgid,
1/8 inch, pale green and some occasionally purplish on one side,
alternate close or distant, in pairs lower down and then one with a
somewhat longer pedicel, solitary in the upper portions, pedicels with
hairs, some of them especially th