Phalaris (redirected from Phal'aris)

Phalaris (făl`ərĭs), c.570–c.554 B.C., tyrant of Agrigentum, Sicily, notorious for his cruelties. He burned his victims alive in a brazen bull (making his first experiment upon Perillus, its inventor), the cries representing the bellowing of the bull. Richard Bentley proved the forgery of 148 Greek letters signed by Phalaris that represented him as a gentle ruler and a patron of the arts.

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Phalaris 

a genus of annual or perennial grasses of the family Gramineae. The inflorescence is a spicate or laciniate panicle. The spikelets are compressed laterally and monanthous; the glumes on the carina often are winged. There are approximately 40 species, found in the temperate zones of both hemispheres. The best-known species is canary grass (Phalaris canadensis ), which thrives in the Mediterranean region. In the USSR it occasionally grows wild and is sometimes cultivated as a feed plant. The fruit of this species makes good feed (canary seed) for cage birds. Also widespread is reed canary grass (P. arundinaceae), which is sometimes isolated into the monotype genus Typhoi-des. Reed canary grass grows along reservoir banks, in damp meadows, and in similar places. It is used for making hay. Mottled-leaved varieties are cultivated as ornamentals.