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P A N I C U M daflylon.
Creeping Panick-grafs.
T HIA NT) HI A Digynia.
G e v . C har. Cal. o f 3 valves, fingle-flowered; the
third valve very fmall. Seed inyefted with the
permanent hardened corolla.
Sp e c . C h a r , Spikes finger-like, hairy at the bafe on
the infide. Flowers folitary. Calyx o f two nearly
equal valves, contrary to the corolla. Shoots
creeping.
S y n . Panicum da&ylon. Linn. Sp. PI. 85. Sm. FI.
Brit. 6 7 . Hudf. 2$. With. 1 16. t. 21. Hull. 15 .
Dick/. Dr. PI. 53. H. Sicc.fafc. 1 1 . 1.
Gramen repens, cum panicula graminis Mannse.
liau Syn. 3 9 9 .
N EW TO N is handed down by Ray as the difcoverer
o f this curious fpecies of Panicum on the fandy fhores between
Penfance and JVlarketjeu, Cornwall, where it has growrn copi-
oufly ever fince. W e are indebted to Dr. Pennick of Penfance
for wild fpecimens. It has never been obferved in any other
part of Great Britain. In the north of Italy it is common in
the ftreets of feveral towns.
This grafs flowers in July and Auguft, or later. The
firong perennial roots are formed of hard polifhed runners
fituated horizontally in the fand, and throwing out from each
joint a duller of fmooth fibres, not downy as in moflr grafles
that inhabit loofe fand. Thefe runners are for the moll; part
clothed with the permanent bafes of the leaves, which are
alternate, rigid, fharp-pointed and hairy. Stipula a tuft of
hairs. Stems a fpan high, leafy, terminated by a duller of
3 or 4 linear purplilh umbellate fpikes, whofe ftalks are zigzag,
angular, but not winged. Flowers folitary, leaning one way.
Calyx of 2 valves only ; but the ftrict affinity between this
fpecies and P . fangumale forbids us to follow Jufiieu and
others in making it a feparate genus. Corolla certainly of 2
valves, not of one only as defcribed by Juffieu. Thofe valves
contrary, not oppolite, to the calyx, might go further to
eftablilh a generic chara&er than any hitherto noticed.