PLATE 152. 



PANICUM ^QUINEBVE, NEES. (Fl. Cap. Vol. VII., p. 399). 

 Nat. Order Graminepe. 



PERENNIAL. CULMS suberect or ascending, very slender, 1 to 1 J foot long, 

 laxly branched, many noded, glabrous, internodes usually exserted. 



LEAVES glabrous or hairy ; sheaths thin, tight, striate ; ligule an obscure 

 minutely ciliate rim ; blades linear to lanceolate-linear from a suddenly contracted, 

 often subauricled base, tapering to a fine point, 1 to 2 inches by f ^ to 2 lines, flat, 

 thin, smooth, margins scabrid. 



PANICLE scanty, lax, erect, 2 to 4 inches long, axis filiform, smooth ; branches 

 very few, 2-nate or solitary, distant, at length spreading, the longer l to :5^ 

 inches long, simple or almost so, 5 to 2-spiculate, finely filiform to capillary, 

 flexuous, smooth, pedicels to 1 line long, tips subcupular. 



SPIKELETS oblong, acute to subacuminate, about 1J line long, greenish, 

 glabrous or pubescent, prominently nerved 



GLUMES, lower oblong, subobtuse, very slightly shorter than the upper, 

 5-nerved, margins and tip hyaline; upper glume similar, broader, subacuminate, 

 7-nerved. Lower floret barren. Valve equal to and like the upper glume, but 

 5-nerved. Pale half the length of the valve. Perfect floret oblong, acute or 

 subacuminate, 1 to 1^ line long, yellowish. Valve subcoriaceous, 5-nerved, smooth. 

 Anthers over J-line long. 



Habitat: NATAL. Swampy places below 1000 feet alt,, Drege ; near Um- 

 pumulo, 2000 to 2500 feet alt., Buchanan 260. 



Drawn from Buchanan's No. 260, the only specimen in the Colonial Herbarium. 



We have no information as to the value of this species, nor can we ascertain 

 whether the natives have a distinctive name for it or not. The specimen from 

 which it was drawn was very incomplete, neither stamens nor stigmas could be 

 found. 



ig. 1, Lower glume ; 2, upper gliime ; 3, lower valve; ; 4, pile ; 5, upper valve ; fi, pale ;. 

 7, mature <>ary ; 8, lodicule ; 9, pedicels and s;>ikelets ; 10, portion of sheath, and blade of 



Ul, K, 1~ A 11 _.. 7 1 



Fig 

 latur 

 leaf with ligule. All enlarged. 



