[Crown Copyright Reserved.] 
ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW. 
BULLETIN 
OF 
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. 
No. 7.1 (1912, 
XXXVI—ELEPHANT GRASS, 
A New Fopprer Prant. 
. (Pennisetum purpureum, Schum.) 
O. STaPr, 
In the “ Rhodesian Agricultural Journal” for June, 1910 (vol. vii., 
p. 1398), a new fodder grass was described as Zinyamunga or 
Napier’s fodder. It was referred to Pennisetum, and compared 
especially with P, spicatum (P. typhoideum), the well known pearl 
millet, Last autumn specimens of the grass were received at Kew, 
and later a chemical analysis of the stalks and leaves was sent by 
Mr. H. Godfrey Mundy, Agriculturist and Botanist of the 
Department of Agriculture, Salisbury, Rhodesia, 
_ The grass was easily identified as Pennisetum purpureum, Schum, 
‘(P. Benthamii, Steud.), a species of very wide range in Tropical 
Africa ; but, common as it is, very little is known about its life 
history and uses, and even its limits as a species and its differentiation 
into varieties is not settled. It will therefore be useful to gather in 
a brief account all that is at present ascertainable about the grass. 
Definition of the Species —A tall perennial grass with a ereeping 
(25633—6a.) We, 189-808, 1125, 912. D&S, 
