PLATE 178. 



PENNISETUM UNISETUM, Benth. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 4.37). 

 Nat. Order Graminesc. 



PERENNIAL. Rhizome short, prremorse ; innovation buds rather stout, acute, 

 h firm, ovate, striate, ciliate scales. 



CULMS 3 to 12 feet high, erect branched, particularly from upper nodes, or 

 snple below, terete, or rarely semiterete in the lower and subtriquetrous in the 



ipermost internodes, very firm, obscurely striate, glabrous, glaucous, nodes 8 or 

 lore, longest internodes to 1 foot long; sheaths strong, the loiver and middle 

 s long as the internodes or shorter, ultimately spreading, the upper longer, tighter, 



ibrous except the usually ciliate mouth and the sometimes hairy nodes ; ligules 



i y short and ciliate or a fringe of hairs ; blades lanceolate-linear from a usually 

 big-narrowed base, or petioled, long tapering to a setaceous point, the longest from 



to 1^ foot, by 3 to 10 lines, rather firm, glaucous, scabrid above, sometimes 



ortly Jind sparingly hairy, margins very rough. 



RACEMES on long very slender peduncles, 1 or several from the upper nodes, 

 nietimes very numerous, to 2 inches long ; rhachis angular, scabrid. 



SPIKELETS subimbricate, oblong or lanceolate-oblong, acute, 1 \ to 1 \ line long, 

 ('ten purplish, basal bristles \ to 10 lines long. 



GLUMES reduced to a minute rounded or truncate nerveless scaberulous scales, 



"' v ,V to , upper | to | line long; lower floret reduced to a valve minutely 



iliate below the tip, otherwise scaberulous or almost smooth, firmly membranous, 



inely 5-nerved, margins obscurely inflexed in the upper third ; upper valve similar 



> the lower, glabrous ; pale almost as long as the valve, hyaline, 2-nerved ; 



xlicules broadly cuneiform, fleshy, ^ line long ; anthers to f line long ; grain 



inknown. 



Habitat : NATAL. Near Durban, in coffee gardens, Drege ; Umpumulo, 1500 

 to 2000 feet alt., Buchanan 220, 221 ; Umhlanga, 3 to 500 feet alt., Wood 6059. 



Drawn from Wood's 6059, and compared with Buchanan's 220, 221. 



Fig 1, Spikelet ; 2, lower valve ; 3, upper valve ; 4, pale ; 5, pi.ti1, stamens and lodiculea. 

 All enlarged. 



