The _leaf-sheath_ is loose, glabrous, striate, margins not ciliate. The _ligule_ is a ridge with a row of erect long hairs. _Nodes_ are glabrous. The _leaf-blade_ is firm, linear, finely acuminate, base rounded, rather narrower than the sheath at the white band, very thinly scaberulous above and glabrous below, veins prominent above, 3 to 9 inches long, 1/4 to 7/16 inch broad; margins are slightly incurved and the midrib is conspicuous only at the lower portion of the blade. The scale-leaves persist at the base of the stems. [Illustration: Fig. 85.--Panicum fluitans. 1 and 2. Front and back view of a spike; 1a. and 2a. front and back view of a spikelet; 3, 4 and 5. first, second and third glume respectively; 5a. palea of the third glume and stamens in it; 6 and 6a. fourth glume and its palea; 7. stamens and ovary.] The _inflorescence_ is a compound spike varying in length from 4 to 10 inches, erect; the main rachis is triquetrous, dorsally rounded, glabrous and very thinly scaberulous at the edges. _Spikes_ are many (fifteen and more), sessile, secund, generally longer than the internodes, and appressed to the rachis, 1/4 to 1-1/2 inches long; the rachis of the spike is angular, edges scaberulous and with very fine short hairs. The _spikelets_ are pale, ovoid, acute, biseriate, imbricate, very shortly pedicellate, glabrous, 1/16 to 1/8 inch, pedicels are hairy with a few long hairs towards the base. There are four _glumes_. The _first glume_ is white, thin, membranous, truncate and wavy at the apex, nerveless or sometimes with one to three short nerves, less than one-third of the third glume, broader than long and clasping at the base. The _second glume_ is ovate, obtuse or subacute, concave, submembranous, slightly shorter than the fourth glume, 5-nerved but occasionally 6- or 7-nerved. The _third glume_ is a little longer than the second and the fourth, usually 5-nerved, broadly ovate, acute, paleate, always with three stamens which come out only after the fading of the stigmas and enlargement of the ovary in the fourth glume. _Lodicules_ are distinct and conspicuous; _palea_ is broad with incurved broad margins and hyaline. The _fourth glume_ is thinly coriaceous, shining, striolate, broadly ovate, mucronate, compressed, faintly and thinly 5-nerved and _palea_ with infolded margins. _Anthers_ are yellow. _Stigmas_ are white when young. _Lodicules_ are distinct. It is a common grass of the wet lands met with in many parts of the Presidency and often confused and united with _Panicum punctatum_, Burm. _Distribution._--Throughout India and Ceylon. It is also found in Arabia, Afghanistan, Africa and Tropical America. [Illustration: Fig. 86.--Panicum Crus-galli.] =Panicum Crus-galli, _L._= It is a tufted annual with many erect branches growing to a height varying from 2 to 3 or 4 feet and the whole plant is glabrous. Stem is stout or slender, simple or branched.