PLATE 147. 



Pankium brizanthum (Hochst. in Flora, 1841, Iiitell. 1.19 (name only) and 

 ex A Rich. Tent. Fl. Abyss. 11,363.) (Fl. CVip. Vol. VII. p. 386). ' 



Perex.xial. - - ClljlS eiect or geniculately ascending from a short rhizome, 

 stout in tall specimens, 1^-6 feet long, glabrous or hirsute with tubercle-based 

 hairs, 4-6 or sometimes many-noded, upper internodes exserted. 



Leaves glabrous or hirsute with fine tubercle-based hairs ; sheaths rather 

 tight, terete, striate ; ligule a narro^v fimbriate rim ; blades linear to sublanceolate, 

 acute to acuminate, 2-15 inches long, by 3-8 lines wide, usually flat, firm, light 

 green, margins cartilaginous, spinulous. 



False spikes, solitary or more usually 2-8 on a slender triquetrous scabrid 

 or rarely almost smooth and often hairy, common axis, distant, often curved, and 

 more or less spreading, rather stout, 2-6 inches long ; rhachis slender, linear, 

 dorsally keeled, scabrid and more oi- less fringed with tubercle-based hairs, 

 villous at the base, internodes 1^-2 lines long ; pedicels solitary, alternate from near 

 the edges, very short, stout. 



tS pikelets usually 1 -ranked, contiguous, ellipsoid, obtuse, turgid, about 2^ 

 lines long, pallid, with purple tips, glabrous. Glumes, louri' membranaceous, very 

 broad, clasping, obtuse, l-l-^ line long, 7-11 nerved, often purple; »/*jje?' firmly 

 membranaceous, oblong, very concave, 2-2^ lines long, 7-9 nerved, nerves anas- 

 tomosing above. Lo«'e/'^^o^'(?< male, valve similar to the upper glume, 5-nerved ; 

 pale broad, elliptic, obtuse, 2-keeled ; anthers 1 J line long. Perfect fioret equalling 

 the upper glume, oblong ; valve crustaceous with an obscure callous tip, very finely 

 pitted, 5-nerved, whitish ; flaps of pale very broad above the base. 



Habitat: — Natal. — Near Umpumulo, Bvclianaa 183; Inanda, Wood 1579; 

 Fenton Vacy, Wood, 1577. 



Also in Tropical Africa. 



P^ig. 1, Lowcist glume ; 2, upper glume ; 3, lower val\ o : 4, pale ; 5, stamens and 

 lodicules ; 6, uppei' ^■alve ; 7, pale ; H, stamens, ovary, style, stigmas and lodicules. All 

 enlarged. 



