PLATE 149. 



Panicum Isachne (Roth, ex Eoem et Schult, 99,458). (Fl. Cap. Vol. VII. p. 390). 



Annual. — Culms geniculately ascending from a sometimes decumbent and 

 rooting base, very slender, 1-2 feet long, terete or angular, glabrous, 3 to many- 

 noded,, much branched below, simple above. Slieaths rather tight, terete or 

 subterete, strongly striate, softly hairy or glabrous, except at the minutely 

 villous nodes, the upper shoi'ter than the internodes. Ligule a dense fringe of 

 stiff hairs. Blades linear-lanceolate from a rounded base, acute, 1-2^ inches long, 

 by 1-2^ lines wide, flat or involute, rather rigid, softly hairy or quite glabrous, 

 margins very scabrid. 



False spikes 2-10, secund <>r subsecund, on an usually adpressed to a filiform 

 scabrid axis ; as long as, or longer than the internodes, very slender, ^-1 inch long. 

 E/hachis filiform , wavy, triquetrous, scabrid, 1-3 inches long. Pedicels solitary, verv 

 short, stout; scabrid or bristly, tips thickened with hyaline margins. 



Spikelets 2-ranked, sec\nid, contiguous, oblong, subacute or obtuse, about 1 

 line long, pallid with purplish tips, softly pubescent. Glumes, lower facing the 

 rhachis, minute, nerveless, rarely ^ line long and 1 -nerved ; upper membranous, 

 oblong, 5-nerved, minutely hairy. Lower floret usuallv barren, sometimes male. 

 Valve like the upper glume but nari-ower, 5-3-nerved, pale very obtuse, subequal 

 to the valve in male, shorter in barren florets, Pei-fevt floret elliptic-oblong, 

 rounded at both ends, \-'i line long. Valve subcoriaceous, faintly 5-nerved, 

 shining, whitish, .finely granulate. Anthers |- line long. Grain oblong-ellipsoid 

 |- line long, hilum orbicular, ^ length of the grain. 



Eabitat :~~N AT AL. — Riet Vlei 4,000 feet alt., Bndianan 215, 216. 



Also in Basutoland and Bechuanaland. 



Drawn from Buchanan's specimens, the oidy ones in the Government 

 Herbarium. 



Fig. 1, Upper glume. J.<iirrr ^fiarct. -2, lower \-ulve, fi'ont \ lew ; .'5, yiinie, hiiek view ; 

 4, pale. Perfect floret- o. upper vaUe : 6, ]mle : 7. stamens, pistil and lodicniles ; 8, 

 lignle. All enlarged. 



