PLATE 120. 



ANDROPOGON SORGHUM (Brot. Fl. Lusit. i. 88). 



ANNUAL. LEAVES as in A. lialepensis, but the ligule often glabrous or 

 glabrescent. 



PANICLE very variable, from effuse to compact. Rhachis of racemes tough, 

 joints and pedicels half as long as the sessile spikelets, or very often much shorter, 

 'more or less ciliate. Sessile spikelets very variable in shape and \ ::;e, on the whole 

 broader than in A. hah-peusis, "Z-3^ by l|-2i lines, pale, reddish, brown or at 

 length black, usually shining. Glumes, lotcer coriaceous, or more or less herha- 

 ceous, particularly towards the tips, rarely quite thin, except at the base, often 

 prominently nerved in the herbaceous part, hairy, rarely quite glabrous, otherwise 

 as in A. halepensis. Awn 2^-7|- lines long, more or less reduced or 0. Grain 

 obovate to globose. Pedicelled sjrikeletx male, or more frequently barren, and 

 more or less reduced. 



Habitat: NATAL. Lower Umvoti. Wood No. :'><)<.)(). 

 Figured from Wood's specimen. 



This is the Kafir Corn or " Amabele of the natives, and the specimen from 

 which the drawing was made is probably an escape from native cultivation. There 

 are some 7 varieties of the plant in tropical and South Africa, and it is stated in 

 Flora Capensis, Vol. vii., Part '2, page :54H, that this specimen most likelv belongs 

 to the variety usm-nm, but more ample material is required to distinguish clearly 

 between the different varieties. The one here figured is the onlv specimen in the 

 Government Herbarium. It is, I think, generally believed that this plant is the 

 cultivated form of A. holepense, and its varieties and synonvms are verv numerous. 

 Professor Hackel enumerates in the Flora of British India 7, while Dr. Stapf, in 

 the same work arranges them in I) varieties (including many of the African ones). 

 Good sets of the different varieties cultivated by the natives in Natal are very 

 desirable. 



Fif. 1, Leaf and inflorescence, natural si/c. Nrssf/r sp-hdrt 2. lower {flume-, front view : 

 2a, same, back view ; 3, upper {flume ; 4, lower valve ; 5, upper valve ; (i, pale and lodirulr- : 

 7, ovary and stigmas. Except fy. 1, //!/ <-nt<u-<i<>tl. 



