PLATE 164. 



PANICUM INTERRUPTUM, WILLD. (Fl. Cap. Vol. VII., p. 413). 

 Nat. Order Graminese. 



PERENNIAL. CULMS ascending from a creeping rooting base, 3 to 5 feet high, 

 stout, very spongy, internodes mostly exserted. 



LEAVES glabrous ; sheaths loose, striate, transversely veined, the submerged 

 sometimes spreading, flattened and bladeless ; ligules membranous, truncate, up to 

 1 line long ; blades linear from a scarcely constricted base, long tapering to an 

 acute point, 4 to 12 inches long, by 3 to 6 lines wide, flat, flaccid, very closely 

 nerved, scaberulous, margins scabrid. 



PANICLE erect, spike-like, cylindric, 6 to 12 inches long, by 3j to 5 lines wide ; 

 axis stout, sulcate, smooth ; branches spirally arranged, very numerous, adpressed, 

 filiform, smooth, up to 2 lines long, divided from the base or reduced to fascicles of 

 disc-tipped pedicels. 



SPIKELETS oblong, acute or subacute, sometimes slightly curved, 1 J to 2 lines 

 long, glabrous, olive-green with dark tips. 



GLUMES, lower one hyaline, almost orbicular, ^ to J the length of the spikelet, 

 finely 5 to 7-nerved ; upper one herbaceous-membranous, oblong, prominently 

 *J -nerved. Florets, lower one barren ; valve like the upper glume ; pale about f 

 the length of the valve, hyaline. Perfect floret, oblong obtuse, whitish or yellowish, 

 1 to \\ line long ; valve chartaceous, obscurely 5-nerved. Anthers line long. 



H&bil&t I NATAL. In stagnant water near Durban, Drvye 4709 ; in similar 

 situation, Durban Flat, Wood 3589. 



Throughout tropical Africa and India to South China and Malaya. 



Fig], Lower glume; 2, lower valve; 3, pale; 4, upper valve; 5, pale; 6, pistil, 

 stamens and lodicules. All enlarged. 



