PLATE 162. 



PANICUM NATALENSE, HOCHST. (Fl. Cap. Vol. ViL, p. 412). 

 Nat. Order Graminese. 



PERENNIAL, compactly tufted ; whole plant glabrous. CULMS erect, slender, 

 wiry, -f to Ij foot long, 1-2-noded, uppermost internode usually long exserted. 



LEAVES crowded near the base ; sheaths terete, tight, firm, the lowest per- 

 sistent ; ligule an obscurely ciliolate rim ; blades filiform, J to over a foot long, -j| 

 to ^ line thick, terete, acute, canaliculate, wiry, flexuous, very rarely partly flat, 

 strongly nerved and sometimes minutely hairy on the upper surface, smooth. 



PANICLE erect, lax, contracted or open, 2 to 6 inches long ; axis filiform, like 

 the subcapillafy or capillary branches, branclilets and pedicels smooth ; branches 

 mostly solitary or irregularly approximate, laxly divided from near the base, the 

 longest f to 2 inches long ; pedicels solitary or 2-nate, very unequal, the longer 1 

 to 4 lines long, tips subcupular. 



SPIKELETS turgid, broadly ovate to ellipsoid, obtuse, 1 line long, light green, 

 sometimes tinged with purple, glabrous. 



GLUMES subequal, subherbaceous, very similar, elliptic, more or less obtuse, 

 5-nerved. Florets, loiver male ; valve like the glumes ; pale subequal to the 

 valve. Anthers J to f line long ; perfect floret ovate, obtuse or subacute, f to * 

 line long, white, smooth ; valve coriaceous, faintly 5-nerved. 



Habitat: NATAL. Novelo Hills, 7000 feet alt., Sutherland; margins of 

 woods near the Umlazi River, Krauss 188 ; Inanda, Wood 1592 ; and without 

 precise locality, Kuchanan 73, 258 ; Van Reenen, 5-GOOO feet alt., December, 

 Wood 7219 ; F. Lauth, Pearson's Falls, May ; Zululand, Jenkinson, December 

 (Wood 7310). 



Drawn from Wood's 7219. 



This grass is also found in Basutoland and Transvaal. Mr. Jenkinson gives 

 the native name as Ntolwana. 



Fin. l, Lower viilvc ; 2, pale ; 3, stamens and loJicules : 4, upper valve; 5, pale: 6, 

 pistil, ftainuns and lo licules. All cnlan/rd. 



