PLATE 134. 



Paspalum scrobiculatum (Linn. Mant. 29). 



Perennial ? — Culms fascicled on a very short praemorse rhizome, innovation 

 shoots few, usually intravaginal. Culms erect, rarely ascending from a prostrate 

 rooting base, 1 to several feet long, usually sheathed throughout, glabrous. Leaves 

 glabrous or more or less softly hairy ; sheaths lax, rather thin, the lower often 

 piirplisli ; ligules membranous, short. Blades linear to linear-lanceolate, acute to 

 acuminate, 4-8 inches (rarely longer in the African specimens), by 2-4 lines wide,, 

 soft, flat or with involute margins. False spikes 2-3 (in the South African speci- 

 mens), or more. Rhachis herbaceous, l-l|- line broad, margins rigidly ciliate.. 

 Pedicels very short, almost wholly adnate. Spikelets 2, rarely 3-4 ranked, falling 

 entire from the pedicels, imbricate, broadly elliptic to orbicular, obtuse, 1-1|- line 

 long, glabrous. Glumes, loiver ; wpper convex, 3-7-nerved, as long as the valves, 

 rarely shorter, or obsolete. Valves, lower flat, often obscurely pitted or wrinkled 

 near' the margin, 5-7-nerved, submarginal nerves 2 on each side, very close ; u'p'per 

 subcoriaceous, brown, shining. Pale subequal to and of the same nature as th& 

 valve, 2-nerved, the flaps auricled ; lodicules 2, cuneate. Stamens 3, anthers over 

 \ line long, styles distinct, slender ; stigmas laterally exserted near the tip of the 

 floret. Grain tightly enclosed by the slightly hardened valve and pale, dorsally 

 subcompressed, hilum basal, embryo less than half the length of the graiji. 



EabitSit : — Natal. Li swamps by the Umlaas River, Krauss 147; grassy 

 plains between Durban and Umlaas, Krauss 204 ; Umjjumulo, Buchanan 184 ; 

 without precise locality, Gerrard 587 ; near Newcastle, Buchanan 175 ; near 

 Durban, March, Wood 6048 ; near Maritzburg, St. George 6a ; near Dundee^ 

 Green 34 ; Zululand, Jenlcinson 46. 



A recent number of the " Kew Bulletin " says of this Grass : — " Kodo or 

 Koda Millet of India. An erect growing annual grass, with stems about 2 feet 

 high. It is widely dispersed through the tropics of the Eastern Hemisphere,, 

 generally regarded as a valuable pasture grass, and as an ingredient for hay. It 

 sometimes attains a' height of 6 to 8 feet. The grain is largely used as food by 

 the natives of India, but it is by no means a wholesome article of diet. Unless 

 special precautions are taken, it is liable to act as a narcotic poison. Cattle, and 

 especially buffaloes, eat the grass readily when it is young. The straw is occasionally 

 used as fodder. Animals are, however, carefully excluded from the fields when the 

 crop is ripening as they appear to suffer even more than men from the ill effects of 

 Kodra poisoning." It is the " Ditch Millet " of New South Wales, and the " Herbe 

 a ^pee " of Mauritius. This grass is widely spread in Natal, but so far as our 

 observation at present goes it is nowhere very plentiful. Native name Samowisana.. 



Fig. 1, Ligule ; 2, rhachis after spikelets have fallen ; 3, upper glume ; 4, lower valve ; 

 5, wpper valve, fi'ont view ; 6, same, back view ; 7, pale ; 8, pistil, stamens and lodicules.. 

 Except Jig. 1, all enlarged. 



