Annual or perennial grasses, with flat leaf-blades and terminal lax panicles. Spikelets i-flowered. Scales 3, obtuse, not awned; the outer about equal; the third thin-membranous, at length rigid, glabrous or pubescent, awnless, and with the margins inrolled; palet scarcely shorter. Stamens 3. Styles short, distinct. Stigmas plumose. Grain ovoid or oblong, free, tightly enclosed in the rigid and shining scale and palet. [Latin name for Millet]

Species 5 or 6, chiefly in Europe and Asia. Type species: Milium effusum L.

1. Milium Effusum L. Tall Millet-Grass

Fig. 412

Milium effusum L. Sp. PI. 61. 1753.

Glabrous throughout, culms 2°-6° tall, erect, simple, smooth. Sheaths shorter than the internodes; ligule 1 1/2"-3" long, truncate, erose-dentate; blades 3'-g' long, 3"-8" wide, narrowed toward the base, acuminate, smooth or scabrous; panicle 3'-10' in length, lax, its branches 2'-3' long, slender, somewhat flexuous, naked at base and dividing above the middle, at length widely spreading; spikelets 1 1/4"-1 1/2" long; outer scales equal, smooth or scabrous, the third scale shorter, smooth, white.

In woods, Cape Breton Island to Ontario, south to Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Illinois. Also in northern Europe and Asia. June-July.