PLATE 155. 



PANICUM DEUSTUM, THUNB. (Fl. Cap. Vol. VII., p. 403). 

 Nat. Order Gramineae. 



PERENNIAL. CULMS from a very short rhizome or the tops of slender stolons, 

 fascicled with few intravaginal innovation shoots, erect or geniculately ascending, 

 2 to 4 feet long, glahrous or finely pubescent below the nodes, sometimes hirsute 

 towards the panicle, terete, 3 to 6-noded, subsiinple or scantily branched, upper 

 internodes more or less exserted. Leaves glabrous or sparingly (rarely densely) 

 hirsute with tubercle-based hairs; sheaths rather firm, terete or subcompressed, 

 striate, nodes pubescent ; ligule a narrow membranous softly ciliate rim ; blades 

 linear to linear-lanceolate from a contracted and rounded or gradually attenuate 

 base, long tapering to a very fine point, J to 1^ foot by 4 to 8 lines (rarely by 1 

 inch), flat, smooth except the scabrid margins, midrib rather stout, whitish. 



PANICLE erect or nodding, contracted or lax, 3 to 9 inches long ; axis slender, 

 angular, scabrid with fine tubercle-based hairs, often pubescent or subhirsute below 

 the nodes, branches scattered or subopposite or scantily whorled, suberect or 

 spreading, rather distant, up to 4 inches long, simp'e, laxly racemose, with 2-nate 

 spikelets, or divided almost from the base, filiform, fiexuous or strict, angular, very 

 scabrid, sometimes with scattered hairs. Pedicels usually 2-nate, unequal, the 

 terminal sometimes up to (i inches long, filiform, scabrid, glabrous or with few long 

 hairs. 



SPIKELETS oblong, obtuse, turgid, 2 to 2^ lines long, light green usually with 

 purple or blackish tips, glabrous. 



GLUMES, /mrer membranous, obtuse or subacute, 1 to Ij line long, 5 to 7- 

 nerved, sometimes purple at the base; vpper one firmly membranous, oblong, 2 to 

 2J lines long, 7-nerved. Florets, lower male ; valve ovate-oblong, obtuse, some 

 what shorter than the upper glume ; pale oblong, obtuse. Anthers 1| line long. 

 Perfect floret exceeding the male and sometimes also the upper glume ; narrowly 

 oblong, obscurely and obtusely apiculate, yellowish, smooth, shining. Valve 

 coriaceous, 5-nerved. Grain obovoid-elliptic, over 1 line ling; hilum oblong, J the 

 length of the grain. 



Habitat : NATAL. By streamlets near Umpuniulo, Buchanan 265a ; Ubabi, 

 Sutherland; near Durban, Williamson 17, 18; and without precise locality, 

 <>'crrard 483 ; Cooper 3342 ; Buchanan 265 ; Zululand, Jenkinson 97. 



Drawn from Buchanan's 265 and 265a. 



Mr. Jenkinson says of this grass : " Liked by cattle, only found in small 

 patches." " This grass is very variable with respect to hairiness and the length of 

 the pedicels." 



Fig 1 , Lower glume ; 2, upper glume ; 3, lower valve ; 4, pale ; 5, stamens and lodicules ; 

 6, upper valve ; 7, pale. All eiilarr/ed. 



