PLATE 498. 



PAMCUM CAPILLARE, Linn. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 407). 

 Nat. Order Graminea?. 



AXXUAL. CULMS fascicled, erect, or ascending, 1 to 2 feet high, robust, about 

 5-noded with flowering branches from some or most of the nodes, sheathed all alonf. 

 glabrous or hairy below the panicle or nodes. 



LEAVES more or less (often very copiously) hirsute or villous, rarely subglabrous ; 

 sheaths lax ; ligules membranous up to line long, ciliate ; blades linear to linear- 

 lanceolate, long tapering to a fine point, subrigid to flaccid, margins scabrid. 



PANICLE often very large, decompound, lax, contracted, then opening out from 

 the top downwards, up to 1 foot or more by f foot ; rhachis angular, often sparse! v 

 hairy, smooth below, scabrid above ; branches solitary, subopposite or 3-natc. or 

 irregularly approximate, filiform, angular, scabrid, undivided for | to 1 inch from the 

 base, then repeatedly and very laxly divided, the longest up to 1 foot long : branchlets 

 long, finely filiform to capillary at length divaricate, scabrid ; pedkvls very unequal, 

 from J line to more than inch long, capillary, very scabrid, tips subelavate. 



SPIKELKTS oblong to lanceolate -oblong, acuminate, from less than 1 to 1| line 

 long, greenish or purplish, glabrous. 



GLUMES, lower broadly ovate, acute, equalling about half of the spikelet. 3 to 

 sub-o-nerved ; upper oblong, acuminate, from less than 1 to 1^ line lonir. .">- to 

 7 -nerved ; lower floret reduced to the valve, which very much resembles the upper 

 glume. Perfect floret oblong, subacute, f to | line long, very smooth, shining, 

 yellowish ; valve faintly 7 -nerved ; anthers line long. 



A native of North America, introduced elsewhere. 



Habitat : NATAL. Near Maritzburg, St. George ( Wood 8880), December 1898. 



Fig 1, Spikelet; 2, lower glume; 3, upper glume; 4, lower salve; 5, upper valve ; 

 6, pale ; 7, pistil, stamens and lodicules. All enlarged. 



