831 



Kataofum 



Africa 



animals 



Sudan (Lecard, Herb. Kew : FL Trop. Afr. he. p. 617) and 

 Lake Chad (Lamb, Herb. Kew) ; the grain is used for food in 

 Bornu (Chevalier, I.e.) and '' an impure salt or carbonate of 



made 



X -^ - ^ , — j^ — ^ 



perennial, up to 15 ft. high; growing 



Herb 



cultivated, Abo-Niger (Vogel, Herb, Kew : Hooker, Niger Flora, 

 p. 561~Pa7iicum frumentacemn) ; a river grass 10 ft.. White 

 Nile (Muriel, Herb, Kew); a reed 3-4 ft. Nairobi River, alt. 



3500 ft. 



Kew 



m 



Libet, Lake Chad (Lamb, No. 108, 1921, Herb. Kew). 



Echinochloa stagnina, Beauv.] Fl. Trop. Afr. IX. p. 617 



[Panicum stagniiium, Retz. ; Oplismenus stagninns. 



Oplismenus stagnimts^ Kunth.] 

 Ill, — Wood, Natal PL v. t- 492 {Panicum stagninum) ; 

 Chevalier, Compt, Rendus, Assoc. Franc, Paris, 1900, t. 5 

 {Panicum Burgu); Act. Congres Internat. Paris, 1900, t. 10 

 (P. Burgu); Une Nouv. PL a Sucre [Reprint], p. 646 & t. 5 

 {Panicum Burgu). 



Vernac. names.— Bovgou, Birgou, or Burgu (Middle Niger, 

 Chevalier, Stapf) ; Burugu (Hausa, Dalziel) ; Aloa (Shuwa Arabs, 

 Lake Chad, Lamb). 



Nupe, Katagum, Sokoto, Lake Chad; also widely distributed 

 in Upper and Lower Guinea, Nile Land and Mozambique 

 Diatrict- 



A good fodder and the soft juicy stems are sucked or made 

 into sugar water, Sokoto (Dalziel, Herb. Kew : Hausa Bot. 

 Voc. p. 17); a fodder grass, much rehshed by stock, Lake Chad 

 (Lamb, Herb. Kew); an excellent fodder plant, the grain is a 

 food, the plant furnishes material for thatching and caulking, 

 is burned to produce a salt in the manufacture of soap and 

 indigo and the canes are gathered for extracting sugar or making 

 a beverage like cider, and in fact every part of the plant seems 



m 



wild 



the most useful (Chevalier, seq. ; Stapf, FL Trop. Afr. Lc. p. 619) ; 



Kew; Stapf, I.e.). 



(Kirk, Herb 



with 



the cliief constituent of the extensive water meadows, inundated 

 by the Niger and Lake Chad, in the Sudd areas of the Nile and 

 in other rivers. Very abundant westward of Sokoto to the 



er 



waterways, and in marshes in Katagum (Dalziel, I.e.); rooted 

 in mud in deep water in marshes. South Angola (Pearson, Herb. 

 Kew); in swamps and lakes, Nupe (Barter, Herb. Kew), growing 

 wild in the River Libet at south end of Lake Chad (Lamb, 

 No. 108, 1921, Herb. Kew). 



U 2 



