PLATE 161. 



PANICUM DREGEANUM, NEE?. (Fl. Cap. Vol. VII., p. 411). 

 Nat. Order Graminete. 



PERENNIAL, tufted, innovation shoots intravaginal. CULMS erect, slender, 

 firm, 1 to over 2 feet long, glabrous, terete, with about 2 exserted nodes. 



LEAVES mostly crowded at the base ; sheaths tight, striate, ciliate, and usually 

 villous at the junction of the blade, otherwise glabrous or sparingly and softly 

 hairy, the lower very firm, fugaciously tomentose at the base, persistent ; ligule a 

 minutely ciliate rim ; blades narrowly linear, gradually passing into and often 

 distinctly narrowed towards the sheath, tapering to a fine point, 5 to 14 inches 

 long by 1 to 2 lines wide, erect, usually convolute, sometimes flat, rigid, glabrous 

 except the more or less hairy or villous base, scabrid, closely and prominently 

 nerved. 



PANICLE erect, more or less contracted, decompound, delicately branched, 

 oblong, 4 to 8 inches long ; axis slender, scaberulous ; branches solitary, 2 or 3-nate 

 or irregularly approximate, the longest 2 to 3J inches long, and undivided for ^ to 

 1 \ inch, then laxly branched, filiform, scabrid, branches subcapillary or capillary ; 

 pedicels solitary or 2-nate, uneqaal, the longer often up to 3 to 5 inches long, 

 capillary, scabrid, tips subcupular. 



SPIKELETS somewhat obliquely ovoid and obliquely acuminate, slightly over 1 

 line long, greenish or more or less purplish, gaping, prominently nerved. 



GLUMES, similar, almost boat-shaped, ovate to oblong-ovate, acute or sub- 

 acuminate, lower one about J to | the length of the spikelet, often mucronulate, 

 5 to 7-nerved ; upper one equalling the spikelet, 7.-nerved. Florets, lower male ; 

 valve very similar to the upper glume, 5-nerved ; pale equal to the valved, oblong, 

 subacute, flaps very broad at the base. Anthers ^ to J line long ; perfect floret 

 oblong, obtuse, f line long, smooth, shining, white or yellowish, tips sometimes 

 purplish ; valve subcoriaceous, very faintly 5 to 7-nerved. 



Habitat : NATAL. Mouth of the Umzimkulu River, Drege ; near Durban, 

 Drcye ; Me Ken 133; WUIimiixoii. 25; Ingone, Sutherland; and without precise 

 locality, Buchanan 117 ; 261 ; Gerrard 477 ; Berea, March, Wood 5939. 



Drawn from Wood's 5939, and compared with Buchanan's 261. 

 Also in Nyassaland. 



Fig, 1, Spikekt ; 2, lower glume ; 3, upper glume ; 4, lower valve; 5, pale ; 6, stamens 

 and lolicules ; 7, upper valve ; 8, pale ; !, stamens, pistil and lodicules. All eiihtr/ca. 



