ejlT C ^74 3
P A N I C U M verticillatum.
Rough P a n ick -g ra fs .
TRIANDRIA Digynia.
G eu. C har. Cal. o f 3 valves, -.tingle-flowered ; the
third valve very frnall. Seed invetted with the
permanent hardened corolla.
S pec. C har. Spike whorled; fpikelcts in fours.
Involucra o f two bridles, rough with reverfed
teeth, and embracing a tingle flower.
Syn. Panicum verticillatum. Linn. Sf>. P i. 82. Snu
FI. Brit. 64. Hudf. 2,4. With. 114. Hull. 15.
Curt. Lond.fafc. 4. t. 6.
Gramen paniceum, fpica afpera. Rail Syn. 394.
F o u n d occafionally in cultivated fields, particularly fuch
as are fomewhat moid. W e believe no place in England is
to certainly known to produce it as the neighbourhood of
Batterfea, from whence this fpecimen was taken. It is merely
a botanical curiofitv, being an ufelefs, if not a noxious, weed
to the agricul turid. It is annual, flowering in July or Auguft.
Root fibrous. Stems widely fpreading, leafy, rough above,
from 6 to 24 inches high. Leaves lanceolate, harfli, very
rough on the margin, pointed, with a fringed dipula crowning
the infide of their (heath. Spike folitary, terminal, ereft, green
with a purplifh tinge, compofed of many whorled fpikelets,
four in a whorl when the plant enjoys a competent (hare ot
nutriment, and each confiding of feveral flowers. Irivolucra
of 2 bridles to each flower, not reaching far beyond the flowers,
and thefe bridles are very rough with little {harp teeth pointing
backwards, by which curious mark this is always, in however
dwarf a date, clearly didinguifliable from P . w id e , as Mr.
Curtis fird obferved. For want of attention to this yircum-
flance the plant was formerly thought a luxuriant variety of the
w id e , and I confefs myfelf to have neglected it in writing the
Flora Britannica, having but lately difcovered in my own
herbarium fpecimens of the real verticillatum gathered near
Norwich along with the viride. Other botanids' have very
generally fallen into the fame error.
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