PLATE 120. 



Andropogon Sorghum (Brot. Fl. Lusit. i. 88). 



Annual. — Leaves as in A. halejyeiisis, but the ligule often glaLious or 

 glabrescent. 



Panicle very variable, from effuse to compact. Rhachis of racemes tough, 

 joints and pedicels half as long as the sessile spikelets, or very often much shorter, 

 more or less ciliate. Sessile sjjikelefs very variable in shape and ; ::;e, on the whole 

 broader than in A. halepensis, ^-,3j by li-2i lines, pale, reddish, brown or at 

 length black, usually shining. Glumes, loirer coriaceous, or more nr less lierba- 

 ceous, particularly towards the tips, rarely quite thin, except at the base, often 

 prominently nerved in the herbaceous part, hairy, rarely quite glabrous, otherwise 

 as in A. halepensis. Awn 2J-7|- lines long, more or less reduced or 0. Grain 

 obovate to globose. PediceUed spikelets male, or more frequently barren, and 

 more or less reduced. 



Habitat: Natal. Lower Umvoti, Wood No. 3990. 



Figured from Wood's specimen. 



This is the Kafir Corn or " Araabele " of the natives, and the specimen from 

 which the drawing was made is probably an escape from native cultivation. Tliere 

 are some 7 varieties of the plant in trojjical and South Afiic^u and it is stated in 

 Flora Capensis, Vol. vii.. Part 2, page 348, that this specimen most likely l)elongs 

 to the variety usorvm, but more ample material is required to distinguish clearly 

 between the different varieties; The one here figured is the only specimen in the 

 Government Herbarium. It is, I think, generally believed that this plant is the 

 cultivated form of A. hrdepense, and its varieties and synonyms are very numerous. 

 Professor Hackel enumerates in the Flora of British India 7, ^\•hile Dr. Stapf, in 

 the same work arranges them in 9 varieties (including many of tlie African ones). 

 Good sets of the different varieties cultivated by the natives in Natal are very 

 desirable. 



Fig. 1, Leaf and inflorescence, natural size. Sessilr xpikelet- '2, lower ghinic, front view 

 2a, same, back view ; 3, upper glume ; 4, lower valve ; 5, upper valve ; 6, pale and lodieulcs 

 7, ovarj and stigmas. Except Ji<j. 1, all enhirijcd. 



