PENNISETUM, Pers. 



Nat. Order Gramineae. 



SPIKELETS oblong or lanceolate, solitary or in clusters of 2 to 4, subtended by 

 and deciduous with sessile or peduncled involucres of naked or plumose bristles 

 (rarely reduced to a solitary bristle in Section Beckeropsis), and arranged round 

 the axis of spike-like usually cylindric panicles, lower floret male or barren with 

 01- without a pale ; upper perfect. 



GLUMES usually small and hyaline, lower sometimes suppressed, upper rarely 

 the length of the spikelet or more, and then several to 7-nerved. Valves 

 equal or subequal, membranous to chartaceous, 5 to 7-nerved, or the lower more or 

 less reduced, thinner, fewer nerved. Pales subequal to the valve and of similar 

 texture, 2-nerved, or more or less reduced in the lower floret. Lodicules small, 

 usually in front and outside the pale or 0. Stamens 3. Styles distinct, slender 

 or connate. Grain enclosed by the slightly changed valve and pale (see also 

 P. typhoideum), broadly oblong, slightly dorsally compressed to subglobose ; 

 hilum basal, punctiform ; embryo large, J to f the length of the grain. 



Section 3, Gymnothrix. Involucre sessile ; spikelets usually solitary, rarely 

 2-3 in each involucre ; bristles never plumose ; anther tips usually naked ; styles 

 almost free or more or less connate or cohering to \ their length, rarely higher up. 



PLATE 175. 



PENNISETUM NATALENSE, Stapf. (Fl. Cap. Vol. VII. , p. 435). 



PERENNIAL. CULMS branched near the base, over \\ foot long, sheathed all 

 along (or the lowest internodes at length naked), firm, smooth and glabrous. 

 Leaves quite glabrous, glaucous. Sheaths firm, glabrous, finely striate, tight or 

 the uppermost slightly tumid ; ligule a fringe of short silky hairs. Blades linear, 

 long tapering to a fine or setaceous point, J to almost 1 foot, by 1 to 3 lines, firm, 

 rather rigid, and generally convolute, smooth except the cartilaginous scabrid 

 margins. 



PANICLE spike-like, slender cylindric, 5 to 8 inches, by about 3 lines, pallid ; 

 rhachis slender, scaberulous like the very short pedicels, involucres of numerous 

 pallid slender scabrid bristles of unequal length, the longer half as long again as 

 the spikelet, one conspicuously stouter and much longer than the rest. 



SPIKELETS solitary, ovate-oblong, slightly over l|- line long, pallid or purple 

 at the tips, glabrous. 



GLUMES hyaline, lower very minute, nerveless, upper ovate, acuminate, less 

 than \ line long, i -nerved. Loiver floret male ; valves very similar, broadly ovate- 

 oblong, suddenly and shortly acuminate, or the upper mucronate, 5-nerved ; 

 lodicules small but distinct ; anthers not quite 1 line long, tips acute, naked ; 

 styles connate at the very base. 



Habitat : NATAL. Qmpumulo, Buchanan 172. 



Drawn from Buchanan's 172, the only specimen in the Herbarium. 



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

 upper valve; 7, pistil, stamens and lodicules. All enlarged. 



