J / y [ 1 10 6 ]
M I L I U M e ffu fum.
Spreading Millet-grafs.
TRIANDR1A Bigynia.
G en. C har. Cal. o f 2 valves, lingle-flowered, tumid.
Seed invefted with the permanent hardened corolla.
Spe c. C h a r . Flowers loofely panicled, awnlefs.
Sy n . Milium effufum. Linn. Sp. PI. 90. Sm. FI.
Brit. 75. Hudf. 29. With. 12 2 . Hull. 17.
Relh. 26. Sibth. 35. Abbot. 13 . Curt. Lond.
fyfc. 4 - * I2 -
Gramen miliaceum. Rail Syn. 402.
I A n elegant grafs, not unufual in moift fhady places,
flowering in June and July.
The root is fibrous, bearing one or more ftems, and throwing
out feveral procumbent fhoots that produce radicles from
their joints. Hence the plant appears to be, as Linnaeus and
Curtis aflert, perennial; and having never cultivated it, we
have no folid grounds for fupporting a contrary opinion;
neverthelefs, feveral truly annual plants, as Pea annua and
fonie fpecies o f Polygonum, do take frefli root during the
fummer in a fimilar manner, and it only remains to be examined
whether thefe offsets o f the Milium flower the fame
feafon with their parent or nOt.
The ftems are ere£t, 2 or 3 feet high, leafy, fmooth.
Leaves broad, flat, roughifh on the margin, and crowned
with an oblong ftipula. Panicle ere£t, lax and widely fpread-
ing, formed o f feveral alternate fafcicles o f varioufly branched
capillary flowerftalks. Flowers pale whitifh green. Calyx-
valves elliptical, concave, 3-ribbed, beardlefs, nearly equal.
Corolla of the fame form but fmaller, fmooth, nervelefs,
becoming at length horny, the outer valve being fmaller,
embracing the inner valve and the feed.
Mr. Curtis juftly points out the affinity o f this grafs to the
genus Panicum, and we think the generic charabter ought,
as in that, to be founded on the hard permanent corolla.