Piper — Andropogon halepemis and Andropogon sorghum. 39 



W. T. Gerrard No. 690 (Kew); Natal, Umhlaiigra, /. M. Wood No. 

 1332 (Kew); Pondoland, F. Bachmann, No. 207, in 1888 (Berlin); 

 Melville, Burchell, No. 6465, June 8, 1814 (Kew). Two specimens at 

 Kew are labelled "Tabncki grass from tlie Cape," one "ex herb. Rot- 

 tlerianum " probably collected by Thunberg; the other "ex herb. 

 Wight" perhaps grown in India. This is apparently the grass to which 

 thenomen nudmn Andropogon tumbackianus Roxburgh Fl. Indica 1:276, 

 1820, was meant to apply. 



In the drier interior and western parts of South Africa the panicle is 

 decidedly more purplish, even the hairs on the spikelets and pedicels 

 being reddish. These differences are perhaps wholly due to climatic in- 

 fluence. Among such specimens are the following: Orange River near 

 Verleptram, Little Namaqualand, Drege (Kew); Grootfontein Nord, 

 Ger. S. W. Africa, Morgenstern (Berlin); St. Clair, near Douglas, 

 Herbert, MacOwen No. 185, Oct. 1897 (Kew) and No. 1995, 1897 (Kew, 

 Berlin); Salisbury, Rhodesia, E, R. Townsend Feb. 1909 (Kew); 

 Kyimbila (?) A. 5'<o/2 No. 1203, Apr. 11, 1912 (Berlin). 



This subspecies has been grown in the greenhouse from seed supplied 

 by Mr. I. B. Pole-Evans, Pretoria, Union of South Africa, from which 

 the following notes were taken: stems slender; nodes of culm 7 to 9; 

 leaf-blades 45-60 cm. long, 2-3 cm. wide; mature caryopsis brownish- 

 yellow, ellipsoid, compressed, 3 mm. long. 



Andropogon sorghum abyssinicus n. subsp. 



Culms stout, 6 mm. thick at base of the panicle; upper leaf pale, flat, 

 4-5 cm. broad; panicle (young) 30 cm. long, very loose; branches 

 slender, flexuous, ascending-spreading, strongly pilose at the nodes, the 

 longest half the length of the panicle; lower glume of fertile spikelet 

 elliptic-lanceolate, 6-7 mm. long, 2.5 mm. broad, 9-nerved, subcoriaceous, 

 nerved only near the apex, quickly deciduous, constricted above the 

 callus, covered with short white pubescence or at length glabrous on the 

 back; awns about 20-25 mm. long; sterile spikelets narrowly lanceolate, 

 strongly nerved, 6-7 mm. long on shorter hairy pedicels; immature 

 spikelets pale straw-colored. 



Collected at Matamma, Gallabat. Abyssinia by Schweinfurth No. 1521, 

 July 25, 1865, who notes that itis " sehr hanfiger Rohrgras bei Matamma " 

 and a " mussenhaftes Unkraut in der Garten." Type at Berlin ; dupli- 

 cate at Kew. 



Hackel cites this as the first specimen under effusus (subvar. aristatus) 

 but under aethiopicus he refers to it as intermediate between effusus and 

 aethiopicus. 



From Schweinfurth' s notes it would seem uncertain whether the plant 

 is wild or simply a weedy form of a cultivated plant. 



Andropogon sorghum cordofanus (Hochst. ) n. comb. 



Andropogon cordof anus Hochst. Flora 27:245. 1844. Type collected in 

 Kordofan by Kotschy (Flora aethiopica No. 54). 



