PANICUM SANGUIN ALE. f sPe, fr
Red Panick-grass.
Sp e c . C hak. Spike fingered, without any setaceous involucellum; florets in pairs;
straw ascending.
Panicum sanguinale can never become confounded with any other British species of this genus, and
with us its characters seem tolerably permanent, though there appears to be many variations in the
continental specimens. Leaves broad, and a little waving, and .the base of them are commonly furnished
with a few hairs, and some long ones are usually scattered over the sheathing ; and we occasionally
observe some minute glands dispersed among the hairs of the sheathing, appearing like rudiments
from whence other hairs have fallen away: the branches of the spike (or rather perhaps panicle)
vary in number; in weak plants we find three, in strong ones five or six.------We think Mr. Curtis
mentions the calyx as being of four valves; we have occasionally found a tninute membranaceous
substance between the little valve at the base and the larger one, like an inner glume, but apparently
so weak and small a membrane can scarcely afford the support that is the required office of the
calyx.------ The red Panick becomes geniculated at the base, and late in the autumn throws out roots
from the geniculations.------ In the axillae of the branches will be found (but not in all the plants
though from the same station) small nodes, apparently designed to effect the expansion of the
branches, and prevent their being clustered together, which they are when in a young state: these
nodes in Poa distans, and some others of our grasses, cause the branches to become retroflexed, but
seem only to expand them in Panicum sanguinale. The same station in Battersea-field which produces
P. crusgalli affords likewise P. verticillatum, P. viride, and this species; so small a space of
ground producing four plants, scarce as are these Panicks, is of rare occurrence, and must not be
expected often.
A, part of a Branch, with a set o f Florets.
B, the three valves of the Calyx.
C, the Corolla: in all this genus the outer valve closely invests the inner one.
D, the Germin, Stamens, and Styles.