PANICUM DACTYLON.[%.?te.
Hairy Panick-grass.
Sp e c . C hak. Spike fingered, and without involucelli; florets solitary; straw humble;
root creeping..
Op all our British grasses we remember but few (perhaps six or seven) that are decidedly solitary,
of which number is the plant before us, discovefed upon the sands of Marazion, in Cornwall, in
the days of our great naturalist, Mr. Ray, and there alone have our botanists been able to detect it,
after all the investigations from that period; from thence we brought pur plants, and we were favoured
again with more by the kindness of Mr. Penneck. The humble stature of this plant, its creeping
roots, and hairy foliage, distinguish it from all the British Panicks.------ Panicum dactylon deviates
from the established generical character in having only two valves to its calyx (a circumstance we
fancy not observable in continental specimens), which obliges us to arrange it according to its general,
not local character. The corolla is furnished with an arista, at the base of the inner valve, of about
half its length, which seems occasionally to expand and push back the valve o f the calyx,* and thus
affording a space for the corolla to open.^-4 Of the five species of British Panicks not the smallest
value, in an agricultural point o f view, is attached to either of them; for though two or three of
them, in rich and manured stations, produce much foliage, yet they appear at a season (August and
September) when herbage is universally abundant, and not in great request; and it is probable that
they would not assort and unite to form a turf with the pasture grasses, but require cultivation by
themselves; a labour and expence that would never be repaid, were their product more abundant
than it is. The whole species,; are unknown to the farmer, and are found only by the assiduous
botanist. Some writers enumerate upwards of a hundred species in this genus!
A, a part of a Branch, with the Florets in the recesses o f the undulations.
B, a Floret.
C, the Calyx.
D, the Corolla.
E, the Bristle at its base.
* The English botany and Flora Britan, observe that the calyx-valves are in reverse to the floret; that may be the
case, but they did not appear thus disposed to us.