All the praise bestowed by your correspondent on this grass is well deserved. It is a thankful plant, both in culture and naturalisation, and in our happy clime we can have it all the year round, whereas in cold zones it is grown as an annual, and gives even there an appreciable return in the short, warm season. Originally the Panuum1 came from the countries at the Mediterranean Sea and the warmer regions of Asia, but for centuries it became already naturalised in America, and we had it here almost since the commencement of colonisation, as by the minute hair like spikes the grain bearing particles adhere readily to the embollages. The grain serves also well for small cage birds. This grass is of short duration, but it is always re-established readily from its dropping seeds.2
Panuum
Typesetter's error for Panicum?
The same column also contains the following entry:
Specimen of Grass.— Observer, Wangoon.— The grass sent from Wangoon, Baron von Mueller states, is also one of the forms of the very variable Pamium Oxus Gall [typesetter's error for Panicum Crus Galli], so that what he said about the specimen sent by H T., of Egerton (sic?), will apply also to this one. If the aborigines could have had this grass centuries ago, it might have helped in leading them up gradually to rural pursuits. At all events it would have aided in sustaining them.
Letter not found. The text given here is from 'Answers to correspondents', Leader, 9 March 1895, p. 9 (B95.03.02). It is introduced by
Sample of Grass.— H.T., Upper Everton, writes: — "Would you kindly classify the enclosed specimen of grass, which, I believe, were it better known, would be extensively cultivated for cattle fodder. It Is a prolific seed bearer; each seed throwing up an immense number of stems, thick and succulent, of which cattle are very fond, luxuriates in gravelly river flats, growing sometimes, under favorable conditions, to the height of 4 feet or more, and will even thrive in heaps of river gravel, placed in dry positions among the hills, or dry clay banks, appearing to resist heat well, as far as observed in the dry districts of the north-east. Very little moisture causes the seeds to germinate, sometimes in 24 hours, when its growth is very rapid. It will stand close feeding." The grass, Baron von Mueller informs us, is the Pannum Crux Galli, [typesetter's error for Panicum Crus Galli?] vernacularly known as Cockshin Grass, and it is the variety without long prickles to the spikes, therefore not an objectionable form of this grass.
Please cite as “FVM-95-03-00b,” in Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, edited by R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora†, J.H. Voigt† and Monika Wells accessed on