PANICUM. 



Mature spikelets falling entire from their pedicels, loosely panicled, solitary 

 2-nate or fascicled on the rhachis of the spike-like branches (false spikes) of a 

 panicle. Upper floret perfect. Lodicules 2, broadly cuneate. Stamens 3, Styles 

 distinct ; stigmas laterally exserted below the tip of the floret. Grain tightly 

 enclosed by the hardened valve and pale, oblong or ellipsoid ; hiluiu basal, puncti- 

 form or orbicular ; embryo equalling about half of the grain. 



A large genus, including 200 to 250 species, many of which are valuable 

 fodder grasses. 



PLATE 146. 



Paxicum HELorrs (Trin. in Spreng. Neu. Entdeek, IT, 84) var, glabrewcens (K. 

 Schum. in Engl. ^ Pfl. Ost-Afr. C.lOl). Fl. Cai). Vol. YTI. p. .•!92. 



Annual. — ( 'ctlms suberect or ascending from a geniculate sometimes decum- 

 bent and rooting base, 1-2 feet long, glabrous, striate, 4-to-many-noded, branched 

 or simple except at the base. 



Leaves more or les.'j finely hirsute with tubercle-based haiis, rarely glabrescent 

 or glabrous ; sheaths rather lax, piibescent to villous at the nodes, ciliate above. 

 Ligules very short, membranous, fimbriate. Blades linear-lanceolate to lanceolate 

 from a broad-rounded or cordate base, acute to acuminate, 2-4 inches long by o-8 

 lines wide, flat, flaccid, margins often wavy, scabrid or fimbriate. 



False Spikes 3-12, rather distant on a compressed or angular, scabrid or oftrii 

 pubescent, common axis, suberect or spreading, secund, 2 -ranked. Rhachis linear, 

 |-^ line broad, flat on the back, with a very prominent midrib on the face, scabrid 

 or spinulously ciliate, and often \^'ith scattered, fine, long, tubercle-based bristles as 

 well. Pedicels usually solitary, very short, stout, scabrid, pubescent, with or with- 

 out 2-3 Wistles near the thickened tips. 





Spikelets contiguous or subimbricate, ovate to ovate-oblong, acute, 

 lines long, pallid, glabrous. Glumes, lower turned away from the rhachis, broadly 

 dvate, clasping, obtuse, equalling ^-^ of the spikelet, hyaline, ;)-5-nerved ; iipprr 

 membranous, ovate to ovate-oblong, subacute to -subacuminate, prominently 7-9- 

 nerved. Loiver fioi'et male or barren. Valve ovate, acuminate, 5-7-nerved, pale 

 equal, subacute. Perfect /fore^. elliptic, rounded at both ends, 1^ line long, pallid. 

 Valve with a scabrid mucro, up to ^ line long, tranversely wrinkled, 5-nerved. 

 Anthers scarcely ^ line long. Grain elliptic, dorsally compressed. Embryci f the 

 length of the grain. 



ESbbitSit : — Natal. "Without precise locality Buc/ia.nav., 78; near Maritz- 

 burg St. George 17 {Wood 7240). 



Drawn from St. George's specimen, the only one in the Government Herbarium. 



Also in Cape Colony and Orange Free State, Mascarene Islands, East Africa, 

 Abyssinia, and India. The typical form with densely pubescent spikelets has not 

 been found on the African Continent. 



Fig. 1, Lower glume: la, upper glume. Male floret — 2, lower valve ; 3, pale. Perfect 

 floret — 4, upper valve, back view ; 5, same, front view ; 6, pale ; 7, stamens, ]iistil and 

 lodicules ; 8, rhachis with pedicels ; 9, ligide. All enlarged. 



